


The Withering- Dreamnotfound/ Gream {Completed!}

by App1e_Juice



Series: The Withering Series [1]
Category: Badboyhalo, Dreamwastaken, GeorgeNotFound - Fandom, Minecraft - Fandom, Sapnap - Fandom, Skeppy, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Action, Adventure, BoyxBoy, Gay, Georgewastaken, Gream - Freeform, Kissing, M/M, Minecraft, My First Fanfic, dreamnotfound, mature - Freeform, minecraft youtuber
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 49,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25160704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/App1e_Juice/pseuds/App1e_Juice
Summary: A sickness washes over the once green land, slowly killing everything in sight. Desperate to save his home, Dream gathers his friends to find the source of "The Withering". He may try his best to save everyone, but what if his best isn't enough? This is a mature story!Story Includes:-Violence-Intense sicknesses and wounds-Implied intimacy between some characters-Strong Language
Relationships: BadBoyHalo/Skeppy, George/Dream
Series: The Withering Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830565
Comments: 164
Kudos: 659





	1. The Beginning?

**Author's Note:**

> I update more frequently on Wattpad you can find the story by searching “The Withering” or my username “App1e_Juice”!
> 
> A/N- This is a fanfic. I do not ship the irl people mentioned in the story and will take this story down if anyone expresses that they don't feel comfortable with stories being written.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream's eyes slowly open as the sound of clanking metal echos outside of his small home. He sits up in his bed and rubs his face. Outside his window, he can see his dad hammering away at a new sword he's been working on for ages. He groans and stands up, slipping into a thin, cotton shirt. Dream slings his backpack onto his shoulder as he leaves his room and enters the kitchen where the smell of freshly baked bread fills his nostrils. He tilts his head into his parent's room to find that his mom must be out, working hard at gathering materials for the village.

Once he finishes his breakfast, we walks outside. Almost every adult was working hard at their designated job while children ran around in the meadow just down the path from the homes. In the distance, he could see loggers cutting down trees and replanting them as they went. Among them was his younger sister who was learning how to efficiently collect wood. She was a few years younger than Dream, but was dedicated to helping the village in any way she could.

"Good morning, Clay," Dream's dad says from his grindstone. "Took you long enough to wake up."

"Dad, come on. It's Dream," he says, almost whining.

His dad rolls his eyes and scoffs. "You may be 'Dream' to your friends, but in my household, you're Clay." He sets his prized sword down and faces Dream. "How about you come over here and let me teach you how to be a weaponsmith?"

Dream shakes his head. "Not today. Sorry."

"You know, son, in a few weeks, you're going to have to pick a job here. Wouldn't you at least want to start learning how to make weapons so that when you choose it, you know what to do?" His dad asks hopefully.

While he showed no emotion on his face, Dream was internally rolling his eyes. Every August in the village, anyone who turned 20 has to pick a job which they will work in until the day they die. Nothing held Dream's attention long enough for him to imagine doing it for the rest of his life. But in three weeks, he'd have to choose. Dream shakes his head says says, "Maybe another time? I told Sapnap that we'd hang out today."

Dream's dad rubs his head. "Why did you guys come up with these stupid nicknames? Just call him Nick."

Dream ignores his dad and, as he walks away from his home, yells back, "I'll tell Sapnap you said hi!" He quietly wheezes to himself as he wanders off towards the first that the loggers were working hard in. He looks across the tree line and finds his friend leaning against a tree, writing something in a book in his hands.

As he gets closer, Dream yells out, "Hey Sapnap!"

Sapnap looks up from his book, full of excitement. "Dream! I have to show you something!"

"What is it?" Dream asks.

Sapnap points into the trees. "If we go that way for two hours, we can see another village!"

This excited Dream just as much as it excited Sapnap. Villages kept to themselves, not daring to intermingle with other villages for whatever reason. Dream's village was on top of a plateau, surrounded by a thick, dark oak forest that was hard to navigate. Since they were kids, Sapnap always fantasized about exploring beyond the forest, but never dared to venture out of eyesight of the village. That all changed a week ago when Sapnap began training as a cartographer. He still had another year before he had to choose a job, but he knew that he wanted to be a scout for the village that made maps.

Sapnap led the way through the forest, Dream sticking close behind him. Dream noticed how Sap appeared to be so confident with every step he took, as if he forgot the dangers that the forest presented. Not only were there monsters lurking around in there, but the village elders warned that there were corrupt villagers somewhere in the world. Dream didn't know where and he knew he didn't want to find out today.

After almost two hours of walking, Dream could see where the trees thinned out. He pushed past Sapnap and run to the edge of the woods. There was a steep drop right on the other side of the trees and, right below them, was another village.

"As soon as I map out a way down, we need to go down and meet some people," Sapnap says.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Dream asks.

"Well, the only friend I've got is this annoying, cocky, dumb blonde that has no idea what he's doing with his life," he teases. "I need better influences in my life."

Dream punches Sapnap in the arm, then sits down in the grass. He notices that this village seemed to have the same kinds of jobs his village had. He quickly spotted people like the farmers and the butchers. Nothing new or out of the ordinary. But among them, he saw two guys talking to each other. One was gently cutting wool off of a sheep that was connected by a lead to a single fence post. The other one seemed to be talking his ear off, going on and on about something passionately. Dream and Sapnap were too far away to hear their conversation. In fact, he couldn't see much of their faces either because they were so high up.

"Hey Dream, I'll tell you what," Sapnap says, breaking the silence. "You head back home and I'll find a way down there. Maybe tomorrow we can go check it out properly!"

Dream nervously looks over his shoulder towards the woods. "There's no way I can make it back on my own, Sap."

Sapnap thinks for a moment, then says, "If I take you to the meadow, can you get home from there?"

Dream nods his head, feeling better about the walk home. The two walk back towards their village, cracking jokes the whole way there. As they get closer to the meadow, Sapnap begins asking Dream some questions that he doesn't have answers to.

"So, what are you going to do at the choosing ceremony?"

Dream shrugs. "I honestly don't know. I don't really specialize in any field of work. My dad wants me to be a weaponsmith, but I'd rather swings swords than use them."

"Why don't you become a cartographer?" Sap asks. "We could go scouting together! It'd be fun!"

Dream laughs. "Yeah, it'd be fun until I get myself lost, then eaten by a monster. I have no sense of direction."

Sapnap nods. "Yeah, maybe that's not your thing." He thinks for a moment. "I got it! Become a miner!"

"And live the rest of my life in the dark underground? No thanks."

Sapnap pulls out his book that has a drawn out map in it to make sure they are heading in the right direction still. "It's too bad there's no warriors or anything. You'd kick ass with that."

Dream imagines this. Him? Being a warrior? That's not even a thing. The village was peaceful. There were enough torches out that monsters won't leave the forest. Plus, if they ever did, the three iron golems would take them out quickly. "As cool as that sounds, it's not happening."

Sapnap looks up from his book and points to a spot ahead of them where the trees thin out. "Go that way, then head east and you'll be home."

"East? Sapnap, dumb it down for your blonde friend please," Dream says, holding back a wheeze.

"What? You ARE a dumb blonde!" Sapnap laughs. "Go straight and take a right. You'll be there in no time."

"Ok. Good luck finding a way down! Oh, and please, don't engage with them until I'm there. We don't need you being this village's first impression on them," Dream teases.

"Ah yes, cause the village nitwit will make a much better impression than I would," Sapnap teases back. "See ya!" He yells as he goes running deeper into the woods.

Dream follows Sapnap's exact directions and, after some time of walking, can see the village in front of him. As he walks, something on the ground catches his eye. Off to his left is a small, black flower. Curious, he bends down to look at it. It's a black rose. Despite the color, the rose looked healthy. Dream leans in to pick it, but just before his fingers touch the rose, an intense pain gets sent through his arm. He falls into his back and groans in pain. He looks at his fingers and finds his thumb and pointer finger are both grey, but quickly going back to the color of his pale skin. As soon as the grey disappears, so does his pain. It's as if he was never hurt in the first place. He looks around and takes note of where the rose is so that he can show Sapnap when he got back from his expedition.

Once Dream steps into the village, he notices that something is off. Everyone was gathered around the well in the middle of the large town, all talking on top of each other. He then notices his sister is in the middle of the crowd. He pushes past everyone to meet her and sees that she is holding a piece of dark oak, only is was black and grey. It looked almost rotten. Beside her was the town Cleric, Thomas, this town's leader and Sapnap's dad.

"Please, settle down everyone. This is nothing to be afraid of. It's just one rotten log. No big deal. We still have plenty of trees around us as well as a surplus of saplings to plant if anything goes wrong with our luscious forest. Everyone, get back to work!" As soon as he finishes his speech, everyone does what their told. In an instant, no one is concerned about the log and instead return back to their boring jobs. 

Thomas takes the rotten log from my sister and smiles at her. "Everything is ok, Lisa, I promise." He walks away, not even acknowledging Dream's existence.

"So, Lisa, what was that about?" Dream asks her.

Despite reassurance from Thomas, she looked concerned. "I was cutting logs and this one rotted in my hands."

Dream remembers the rose he saw in the meadow. "Did it hurt you when you touched it?"

Lisa gives him a weird look. "Um....no? It literally just rotted. And it was the only piece that rotted. The rest of the tree was fine." She begins walking back to their home. "I'm sure Thomas is right. It's probably nothing." She didn't seemed too convinced of this, though.

Dream didn't seem convinced either. He kept thinking back to his moment with the rose, but he decided to keep that to himself until he could talk to Sapnap about it.

———

Word count: 1840

First chapter! Whoooo! If I had any typos, comment them and I'll have them fixed ASAP!

Published: June 16th


	2. Have a Sheerful Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream woke up the next day, eager to tell Sapnap about the black rose. By the time Sapnap got back the previous night, Dream was too tired to tell him about it. But this morning, he was well rested and ready. He quickly got dressed, grabbed his bag, and swiped a piece of cake when no one was looking before heading off to find his friend.

Sapnap was sitting on the wall of the well, playing in the water with his hand. He notices Dream walking closer to him and jumps onto the ground, wiping the water on his pants. "You ready to go meet some new people?" He asks.

Dream nods as he takes a bite of the cake he had stolen earlier.

"Dude.......it's like, 7:30 in the morning. Why are you eating cake?" Sapnap asks.

With a mouthful of frosting, Dream responds, "Same reason you were playing in the water. We're children."

"Well, you better act like an adult when we meet the new villagers! You never know who you may meet." Sapnap leads the way out of the town and pulls out his map book. Dream looks over his shoulder and sees Sapnap has drawn a black line around the edge of the forest he had drawn. That must be the path he was walking to.

As they continue through the meadow, Dream grabs Sapnap's arm, pulling him back. He had almost stepped on the black rose, the one thing Dream forgot to bring up. Sapnap gives him a weird look, but follows his line of sight to where Dream is staring. Both boys get on their knees to check out the flower up close.

"I found this thing yesterday," Dream explains. "When I went to pick it, it caused me to feel pain and turned my fingers grey." Sapnap reaches out to touch the flower, but Dream smacks his hand away. "Dude! Didn't you hear the part when I said it caused PAIN?!"

"I did," Sapnap says, "but you're also a wuss so it probably doesn't hurt that bad." He quickly goes to touch the flower before Dream can stop him, but recoils in pain. "Holy FUCK!" He yells. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!"

Dream begins wheezing at his friend. "Who's the wuss now, huh?" He collects himself as Sapnap watches his fingers return to their pinkish color. "It's some sort of black rose. I don't know where it came from though."

Sapnap angrily stands up. "Let's just go to the village. We can look into it later." Dream snickers as he follows behind him.

The trip to the edge of the forest went by a lot faster this time. Now that Sapnap had a good idea of where they were going, he was able to go much faster through the trees. Eventually, they made it to the other side of the forest and Dream saw where Sapnap had dug a way down the side of the mountain. He watched his step as he went down, but after a few minutes, he was safely on the ground and ready to meet new people.

He and Sapnap walk side by side towards the main path of the village. As they entered, they could feel the townsfolk staring at them. It was rare for villages to have visitors, especially ones that came in peace. But after a few minutes of looking at them, the villagers got back to work.

Up ahead, Dream could see the two guys he had seen the day before. It was almost as if they didn't move since the last time he saw them. One was sheering a sheep while the other was talking to him. Dream looked at Sapnap, then back at the guys, then decided to walk over to them.

"I'm telling you, George! There's so much about this world that we don't know and we won't know until we try it!" The talkative one said. He pushed his glasses up as he continued. "I'll get you to believe in magic. I know I will."

George, the one sheering the sheep, rolls his eyes. "Right. And when that happens, remind me that I owe you a stack of emeralds." Dream immediately noticed George's accent. He talked differently than anyone else he's ever met before and it was too early to tell of he liked it or not. "Look, Bad, you can believe whatever you want, just don't get too disappointed if these things you've read about aren't all true."

The talkative one, or 'Bad' as George has called him, notices Dream and Sapnap approaching them. He taps George's shoulder and he looks up at Bad. Bad points at the strangers and George follows his gaze. As soon as Dream and Sapnap are close enough to have a conversation, Bad says, "What brings you two to our village?"

"Our village is actually up there," Dream says pointing up tot he plateau. "Sapnap here was making a map and stumbled upon this village."

"I'll be right back," George mumbles as he pulls a fully sheered sheep along with him. He leads the sheep into a pin with many other sheep, some sheered, some not. He comes back and sits on the fence post. The four stand in awkward silence for a few moments, not quite knowing what to say. They'd never met new people like this before.

Bad is the first one to break the silence. "Well, my name is Darryl, but you can call me Bad."

"Bad?" Sapnap asks.

Bad turns red as he holds in a laugh. "Yeah, just something silly I came up with. I'm a bad boy, so you can call me Bad!"

George giggles. "More like Bad Boy Halo if you ask me. This guy doesn't have a bad bone in his body. He's all cute and pure." It was at this moment that Dream knew he liked George's voice. He desperately wanted him to keep talking. He was fascinating to listen to. "I'm George, but you can call me George because I was lame and didn't come up with a nickname."

Dream smirks at his joke. "Well, I'm Clay and this is Nick, but we've been trying to go by Dream and Sapnap. Sadly, it's not catching on in our village," he jokes.

George smiles. "Well, if we only call you guys those names here, it will at least catch on cause no one will know your real names. Besides, I think I like 'Dream' better anyway."

Dream smiles. "Well, thank you. Sapnap helped me come up with it."

Thunder begins rolling in the distance. Bad frowns up at the sky as dark clouds start coming in. "Let's get inside before it starts raining. Don't want any of us catching a cold." Bad leads the way to his home and unlocks the door for us. The inside looked nothing like the outside. The exterior of the home was just simple cobblestone and logs, but the inside was filled with carved stone and rainbow carpet. He had multiple bookshelves filled to the brim with knowledge and in the corner was some sort of obsidian table that looked broken down. In the middle of one of the walls was a wooden door that appeared to go into the house right next to his.

"Welcome to our home!" Bad says grandly as everyone looks around. "If you guys get hungry, let me know and I can make us something to eat."

George enters a room off to the side, then comes back into the room holding a book and a quill. He smiles at Dream as he sits down next to him. As Sapnap and Bad begin their own conversation, Dream watches as George writes in his book. On one side, there was a list of names and items next to it. Things like shirts, jackets, and carpets were written next to the names. On the other side of the book, George was keeping track of how much wool he had sheered from the sheep.

"So, I assume that you're a shepherd?" Dream asks.

George nods. "The elders thought that the job would suit me. It's nothing exciting, but it's honest work. It pays enough for me and Bad to live off of."

"Wait, the elders picked your job?" Dream asks.

George nods. "Yeah. Do they not do that in your village?"

"Nope. We pick our own jobs," Dream explains. "In fact, I have to pick in a few weeks which is terrifying."

"There's nothing till be afraid of. I had to go through my job selection three years ago. It seems scary at first, but you get through it." George finishes up in his book, then closes it and puts it on the side table.

"Do you and Bad live here together?" Dream asks.

"Actually, we have a cool set up." He first points at the wooden door that the cat came out of. "Through that door is my room and on the other side of the kitchen is Bad's room. We share a living space and kitchen."

Dream nods. "That's actually really cool. It'd be great if Sapnap and I could have a place like this."

"Are you two a thing?" George asks.

Dream laughs. "Not at all. He's just a good friend. That's all."

"I get it," George says. "It's the same thing with me and Bad. He was assigned to be a librarian which basically means 'read books and earn no money. Knowledge is your payment.' If we weren't friends, he would've had to live with his parents. He did live with them for two years, but moved in with me as soon as I got my job."

"Wait how old are you?" Dream asks.

"23."

Dream looks at George's face. "I can't believe you're three years older. You seriously look like you're 16."

George shrugs. "I got the worst gene pool possible."

"Not at all!" Dream says. "I never said you looked bad. Just young."

George's cheeks started turning a light shade of pink. "Well, thanks, I guess."

"Dream!" Sapnap calls. "Are you hearing this?"

"What?" Dream asks, turning to Sapnap.

"Bad was telling me about this creature he recently read about." He turns to Bad. "Tell him, Bad!"

Bad seemed a bit confused, but began telling Dream about the creature. "It's called a Wither. It's this three-headed flying creature that kills all living things and can devour whole worlds if it wanted to. If it gets near you, you instantly feel weak, turn grey, and begin to literally wither away. If it withers you enough, you can turn to dust. Hypothetically, it can kill someone by just being in the vicinity of them."

"And what happens when they kill a monster?" Sapnap asks, guiding him to the point.

"Well, it grows a black rose in its place known as the Wither rose. It has the same effects that the Wither itself has, but on a much smaller scale."

Dream stares at Bad with fear. If that rose was a Wither Rose, then that meant that there was a monster lurking around nearby. He swallowed hard as he looked at Sapnap, who looked just as scared as he was.

George laughs. "Oh come on, guys, that thing is just a myth. There's no way any of that is real."

Sapnap closes his eyes. "Actually, we kinda need to tell you something."

———

Word count: 1901

Another part done! The story is finally starting to kick in, so buckle up. It's gonna get crazy!

Published: June 17


	3. It’s a Sign

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

After telling Bad about the flower, he begged the two to take him to it. He just had to see the withered rose in person. Bad looks out his windows and sees that it's raining. The other guys notice this as well. Bad and George both grab their jackets hanging from the wall by the door while Sapnap pulls a hoodie out of his backpack.

George notices that Dream was just standing there in his thin shirt, not grabbing any sort of long sleeves. "Aren't you going to get a jacket on?"

Dream smiles awkwardly. "I didn't bring one with me. I didn't realize it'd start raining today."

Without another word, George ducks into his room and comes back out with a bow and a quiver in one hand and a lime green sweatshirt in the other. He hands the sweatshirt to Dream, then attaches the quiver to his belt.

Dream looks from the hoodie in his hands, then back to George. "I can't take this! It's really well made. You could make a good amount of emeralds off of this."

George smiles. "Just take it, Dream. It was supposed to be a different shade of green, but I mixed the dyes wrong. It was back before I got used to what items made what dyes."

"You 'got used' to it?" Dream asks.

"I'm colorblind," George explains. "I didn't quite know what I was doing when I made it. It's yours now though!"

Dream pulls the hoodie over his head and notices the sweet smell coming off of it. He covers his nose with the sleeve and takes a deep breath, trying to place the smell, but he couldn't.

Bad notices the weapon in George's hand and lets out a small giggle. "George, we are just going to see a flower. We don't need weapons," he says as they all walk out the door.

George looks up towards the plateau, worried. "If this Wither thing is out there, we should all have weapons."

Sapnap places his bag down and pulls a wooden sword out of his inventory. "Here, I'll carry a weapon too. No need to worry."

"If we are relying on YOU to protect us," Dream starts to wheeze, "then we are all already dead." Sapnap elbows Dream in the stomach as he walks away.

The villagers once again stare at Dream and Sapnap, watching them as they head towards the path that Sap had dug out the previous day. They began their journey into the forest, but as soon as they reached the dark oak forest, Sapnap stopped everyone.

"Something's wrong," Sapnap says quietly.

Dream scabs the forest as he listens for any signs of something being off. "Seems fine to me," he says. "I don't hear anything."

"But that's what's wrong, Dream," Sapnap says. "The birds should be out, but they're not."

"The rain is probably drowning out their tweets," Dream figures. "They may just be nesting or something." Dream walks into the forest, Bad following close behind him. Sapnap continues to look at the forest, worriedly. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees George loading an arrow into his bow. He was the only other person that agreed with Sapnap. Something is off.

Sapnap jogs ahead of Dream to lead the way through the forest before they get lost. Bad looked around at his surroundings, taking in the foliage. The trees above them were thick enough to stop rain from coming through too hard. There would be the occasional spot where rain would make it through the trees, but the group stayed relatively dry. Though he didn't really need it, Dream was still thankful that George gave him the hoodie. It kept him warm while the wind whistled through the branches.

After some time of walking, Sapnap calmed down a little bit, but George was still on edge. "Have any of you guys noticed any animals since we've been out here?" George asks.

Dream shrugs. "I don't know. I haven't been paying attention." Bad and Sapnap both mumble in agreement.

"I'm sure they are in their homes, hiding from the rain," Bad explains. "It's nothing."

As they reached the edge of the forest, Dream began to smell something rotten. The smell only gets stronger until they reach the meadow. Almost all of the flowers were replaced with withered roses, each giving off a disgusting smell that Dream hadn't noticed earlier.

Bad looked wide-eyed at all of the flowers. "You didn't tell me there was more than one!"

"That's because there wasn't more than one," Sapnap says quietly.

Bad's smile quickly drops. "We should be careful. We don't know if these things will hurt us."

"Oh, they hurt alright," Sapnap says. "Don't touch them and we should be fine."

The group carefully makes their way across the meadow, doing everything they can to avoid the flowers. Dream couldn't believe how many had grown. If Bad was right, then that meant a ton of monsters had to die to make these flowers. Surly someone would've noticed a foreign floating thing killing zombies, right?

Sapnap stopped in his tracks, nearly tripping Dream who was walking behind him. A few hundred yards away, there was a flying thing with three heads. It was surrounded with withered roses. "Um....Bad?" Sapnap asks, nervously. "Is that a wither?"

Bad slowly nods. "We need to turn around and run back to the forest before it notices us."

The Wither begins to rise into the air, killing the trees around it. It had a magical blue glow around it that nearly blinded Dream when the sun hit it just right. Bad grabs Dream and Sapnap and begins walking backwards towards the tree for cover. George followed their lead, but ended up stepping on a withered rose.

Dream couldn't tell which was worse: the awful, high pitched scream that George let out, or the fact that it caught the Wither's attention. The Wither whipped around and faced them as Dream helped George back up. To their surprise, the monster turned back around and began floating towards the village.

"Dream!" Sapnap whispers. "We have to go help!"

"I know, I know, but what are we going to do? We can't beat that thing!" Dream responds.

Sapnap tightens his grip around his sword. "Says you!" He then rubs out of cover and towards the monster.

Dream jumps up and runs after him, calling his name. "SAPNAP, STOP!"

As Sapnap got closer, he yelled out a battle cry and held his sword above his head. The monster was right on the outskirts of the village, floating by a small home. Sapnap swings down and gets blasted back into Dream, knocking him down with him. They both sit up and notice that the blue coating around the Wither had vanished and the side of the house had been blown out. Inside, a little girl cowered in the corner, starring in horror at the monster. She looked like she was alone.

Sapnap shook off the blow he had taken, ignoring the pounding in his head. He charged at the Wither again while Dream ran to the girl in the house.

"Come on! We need to get you to safety!" Dream yells. The girl bursts into tears. "Come on kid!" He pleads. "We don't have time for this!" He reaches for her arm, but she pulls away from him. Outside of the broken home, Dream can hear Sapnap grunting as he fights the monster. "Let's go!" Dream says to the child, anxiously.

"Hey there!" A gentle voice says behind him. It's Bad. "Shh, everything is going to be ok. Let's go find a place to stay for a little bit, ok?" He carefully approaches the girl. Though there was complete terror in his eyes, he gave her a friendly smile. "I'll make sure you stay safe."

"What about my daddy?" The girl asks.

Bad reaches out for her. "We can find him when this is all over. Until then, I'm going to take care of you." The girl pushes past Dream and hugs Bad. Her cries soften as he picks her up in his arms. "George and Sapnap are fighting that thing. You need to help them," Bad says.

Dream nods and follows Bad out of the broken wall of the house. He spots Sapnap and George back in the meadow, trying to lure the minster away. Sapnap yells profanities while George fires arrows into it. Dream looks back towards the rest of the village and notices that there are chunks of homes missing as well as new holes in the ground that weren't there before. Looking back towards his friends, he sees that the Wither is absorbing the blocks it hovers over. In fact, it looked like it was growing bigger with every block it took in.

Dream looks around, hoping to find some sort of weapon. He settles on the sword that his father had been working on for the past few weeks. Dream didn't stop to consider the consequences of taking his father's sword. He was just focused on saving his friends. He rushes towards the Wither and shoves the sword into the back of its chest. The Wither lets out a terrible screech, then floats up. George tried to fire arrows into it, but it avoids them, then flies off, away from the village.

"Where's Bad?" George asks. "Is he ok? Please tell me he's ok."

Dream looks towards the village. "I don't know. He was helping some kid get to safety." He squats as he looks at the village, then spots Bad leaving a home with the girl holding his hand. Everyone else exits their homes as well. They murmur amongst themselves as they check out the damage done to the village. The three look at the damage done to the homes and business, shocked at how just being near the thing wasn't enough to destroy a town.

"Nick!" Sapnap's dad calls out. Sapnap weaves in between the crowd forming to reach his dad. His dad lets out a thankful sigh as he grab's his son's face. "Thank god you're alright! You had me so worried!" Dream grabs George's hand to keep from separating as they make their way to Sapnap.

Sapnap rubs his head as he says, "Did that thing hurt anyone?"

Sapnap's dad shrugs. "It's too soon to know."

"GUYS HELP!" Bad yells from the edge of the village. He was by the little girl's house. She was crying into his shoulder as he cradled her in his arms. Dream and George make their way over to him, but Sapnap stays back to talk to his dad.

"What's wrong?" Dream asks.

George looks down at the wrecked wall, then gags as he looks away. "Oh my god." Under all of the rubble from the wall was a man. His skin was grey and he looked malnourished. His facial expression was one of deep sadness. He was frozen in place.

Dream crouches down and tries to pull the man out from the debris, but the man's hands turn to dust after Dream barely pulls on him. Then, the rest of his body blows away with the breeze. Dream looks at his hands, which were coated in the grey ash. The Wither has taken its first life. George helps Dream up as Dream brushes the ash off onto his jeans.

"Dream?" Bad asks. "Do you happen to know if Lily has any other family members?"

"Lily?" Dream asks.

Bad nods his head to the girl in his arms. "That was her dad. She won't talk to me anymore. I need to know where her mom is."

Dream shrugs. "I'm sorry, but I don't know their family."

"He was a farmer," Sapnap says, walking up behind them. "I bought carrots and potatoes from him. He was a good man. Wife died during childbirth. His mother lives in a home two houses down from mine."

The little girl looks up to Sapnap. "Nicky?"

"Hey, Lily. Do you want to go visit your grandma for a little bit?" Sapnap says quietly. The little girl nods. Bad puts her down and Sapnap grabs her hand, guiding her out of the broken house. "Meet me at my place in 10 minutes," Sapnap says before he leaves. "My dad needs to talk to us."

———

Word count: 2055

Published: June 25th


	4. Hired Help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

George and Bad awkwardly sit outside of Sapnap's home. George had tried his best to listen to the conversation going on inside, but eventually gave up because he couldn't make out what was being said. Bad's jacket had a wet spot on the shoulder from his time with Lily. He looked super upset.

"You know, when Sapnap said that his dad wanted to talk to 'us', I didn't realize that he only meant him and Dream," George says. "Why can't we just go home?"

"Because they are our friends and we can't leave without saying goodbye," Bad says sternly. "I always feel weird when someone leaves and doesn't say 'bye'."

"I'd normally call you weird, but after what happened all those months ago, I kind of get it," George responds.

Bad lowers his head. "I thought we weren't going to talk about that?"

George looks at his friend apologetically. "I know. My bad." They sit in silence for a few moments. "You know, I'm here whenever you're ready to talk about it."

Bad closes his eyes. "Maybe soon."

"That's all we know about the Wither," Dream says as Thomas paces around the room.

"Can we go now, dad?" Sapnap asks.

Thomas shakes his head. "We can't just let this go, boys. A thing flew in, destroyed houses, killed the farm animals, and absorbed all of our crops. If we just pretend like this is fine, then what's stopping it from coming after us again?"

"What are we supposed to do then?" Dream asks.

"Well," Thomas starts, "That's why I needed to talk to, Clay." He stops pacing and stops in front of Dream. "You're skilled in combat and you're fast when traveling through the trees. How would you feel if I paid you to go after the monster?"

Sapnap scoffs. "That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard!"

"I'll do it," Dream says, not truly thinking about what he was about to commit to.

Sapnap stares at him. "Um, Dream? Did you not hear what he said?"

"I go kill the Wither and I get paid," Dream states. "It's simple."

Sapnap's jaw drops. "Dream! You saw what that thing did! You seriously think you can do this?"

Before he can respond, Thomas claps his hands together. "Perfect! Clay, I will provide you with the finest weapons and armor emeralds can buy. You will be doing this village a great service!" He opens his front door and motions for the two to leave. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a food shortage to solve." Dream walks out, surprisingly calm.

Sapnap, on the other hand, was freaking out. "DREAM! ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!"

"Why are you yelling at me?" Dream asks.

Sapnap pinches the bridge of his nose. "You agreed to go after a thing that can kill and destroy everything it comes into contact with. And you're doing it ALONE!"

Bad and George look at the other two like they're crazy. "What is going on?" Bad asks.

"Dream is going to hunt down the Wither alone," Sapnap says.

George laughs. "No he's not!" His laugh stops when he sees that he's the only one laughing. "Wait, seriously?"

"I've already made up my mind. I'm not good at anything here in the village anyway. I'll get to use the skills I've got to be a hero," Dream jokes. No one was laughing.

"Don't you think that you should get people to help you?" Bad asks. "This is extremely dangerous, Dream."

"No one would be stupid enough to go after that thing. But as you've established, I am a dumb blonde who doesn't have a life plan. This may help me figure out what I want to do."

Sapnap crosses his arms. "I'm not letting you go alone. You'll just get lost and die."

"I'll figure something out. I won't get lost and I'm not letting you go with me." Dream starts to walk towards his house, but George grabs his hand and pulls him back.

"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" He asks.

Dream pulls his hand away from George. "There is no we. I'm sorry, but I'm doing this alone." The three watch him walk back to his home. Dream felt confident, not letting himself truly process what he agreed to. He'd rather convince himself that he'd be fine than accept what he has to do.

Dream couldn't sleep. Any confidence he had was destroyed the second he told his family. His mom began to cry, saying that he was her only son and that she needed him. His sister was just as upset, but was more angry for Dream taking on this challenge. His dad, though, seemed to be happy Dream was doing this, claiming that he may be able to learn how to make weapons while on his journey so that he could become a weapon smith when he returned. Dream was hurt that his dad ignored the bigger picture of this journey. Before he went to bed, Sapnap dropped off an iron chest plate, an iron sword, a bow and some arrows, and enough food to last him a week. Sapnap only said that his dad told him to drop off everything and refused to say another word. Dream understood that he was mad, but he wanted to say bye to his best friend before leaving. After struggling for what felt like hours, he was finally able to drift to sleep.

Dream woke up the next morning, bright and early. He got dressed in a light t-shirt and dark cargo pants. As he packed his backpack up with everything Sapnap delivered him, he noticed the green hoodie draped over his desk that George gave him. After thinking for a moment, he decided to take it with him, just in case he needed it. He shoves it into his bag, then heads into the living room. His family was still asleep and he decided not to wake them up to say goodbye. He'd only feel worse if he had them to remind him that he was probably going to die.

Dream steps outside and feels the cool air dance on his skin. It was a nice day, considering the circumstances. Only a few of the villagers were out. It was too early for everyone else. As he began walking towards the path off the plateau, he walked past Sapnap's home. Part of him wanted to run inside and drag Sapnap out of bed and along with him, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He instead continued walking. After a long walk through the meadow and the forest, he found himself facing a savannah. With a deep breath, he began his journey to find the Wither. Thankfully, the Wither left a trail of death and destruction wherever it went, so it was easy to follow.

Dream tried his best to keep track of where he was going. He drew his path on a map he made, but he couldn't tell if he was doing it right. He tried to make it look like Sapnap's maps, but was having no luck.

While he was drawing, he suddenly felt himself falling. He let out a gasp, thinking that his adventure was just cut short and that this was the end, but landed in water. He sat in the pool for a minute, catching his breath. Dream looked around and found himself in a cave-like thing. Above him, the sub shined through a large opening. He wondered how he hadn't seen the giant ravine before falling into it.

Dream gets out of the water and tries to figure out a way up to the top. He could try to climb out, but with his fear of heights, there was no way he'd make it all the way up. To his left, there was multiple pools of water and lava. To his right was a very dark cave that appeared to curl upward. Not liking this choices, he decides to go into the cave, hoping it takes him back to the top.

He did his best to find his way through the darkness. He didn't have any wood or tools, so he had no way of making torches. He kept one hand in the cave wall at all times to make sure he was moving forward. The walk wasn't so bad. He kind of found the walk soothing. It was peaceful.

At least it was for a few minutes.

Ahead of him, he heard a zombie moan. Behind him, he could hear the clatter if a skeleton's bones as it moved. Both monsters appeared to be getting closer and, with no way out, Dream drew his sword and prepared himself to face them. This wasn't his first time dealing with dangerous creatures, but he still got nervous when he had to be the one to kill something. Dangerous or not, a life was a life. He decided to go forward towards the zombie, not wanting to deal with being sniped out of existence.

He carefully approached the staggering zombie and swung his sword a few times, successfully killing it. He pushed forward and found another zombie and killed it as well. But then he heard a skeleton in front of him. He squints his eyes to try and see better in the dark, but it didn't help. He decided to continue pushing forward and ran right into the skeleton. His heart stopped for a second while he swung his sword at the skeleton. The skeleton staggered back, but didn't die. An arrow flies right past his head, telling him that the skeleton behind him caught up. Dream hits the skeleton ahead of him again, but it still doesn't die. Both skeletons fire at him. One arrow misses and the other one finds its way into the back of Dream's leg, knocking him down. He tries to get back up, but the pain in his leg was too much. He began pushing himself away from the skeletons, but quickly backed up against the cave wall. The skeletons came closer and closer. Dream closes his eyes, preparing himself for the pain he was about to experience.

But the pain never came.

Instead, he heard a bow shot and a sword hitting bones. Dream opened his eyes and saw Sapnap and George standing over two dead skeletons. They both looked extremely pissed off, but Dream couldn't tell if he was why they were mad. Sapnap offers Dream his hand and pulls him up.

"You know, for a guy that has great combat skills, that was sad," Sapnap said. Though he said it as a joke, he was still very mad about something. George silently shoves a small loaf on bread into Dream's hands, then walks off the way they came. Dream eats and pulls the arrow out of his leg, feeling himself heal. As soon as he was able to stand on his own, Sapnap let go and marched the direction George went. Dream follows.

"Thanks for saving me," Dream says. "I was a goner back there."

Sapnap shrugs. "It was nothing. You would've done the same for me."

"How did you guys find me?" Dream asks.

Sapnap scoffs. "Well, IM the one that followed your footsteps you left. The other two followed me."

"Why are they here?" Dream asks.

"I was wondering the same damn thing, but they both claim that they just wanted to help. I think it's a load of bullshit if you ask me!" The more Sapnap talked, the madder he got. "We don't need them. We can do this alone."

Dream sighed. "For the last time, there is no WE, Sapnap."

"Dude, you couldn't go ten minutes without falling into a ravine. I thought you were supposed to be badass, not stupid."

Once they reached the entrance of the cave, Dream saw that someone had carved a staircase into the side of the ravine, giving them a safe way out.

As soon as Bad saw Dream, he jumped up and pulled him into a bear hug. "You MUFFIN!" He shouts into Dream's shoulder. "YOU SCARED ME!"

"You literally just met us yesterday," Sapnap says, not believing Bad.

Bad let's go of Dream and looks at Sapnap. "So? I'm allowed to care about him."

Sapnap rolls his eyes and begins climbing up the stone staircase. Dream follows, George just behind him. George has stayed silent the whole time he'd been there. In an attempt to get him to talk, Dream asks, "So, George, was it?"

"Yeah," George says quietly.

"Why are you and Bad our here?" Dream asks. "I get why Sapnap followed me, but we don't know each other. I could be a murderer for all you know!" Dream's joke manages to get George to smile. Though it was only for a second, it made Dream feel all warm inside.

"Bad thought you could use the help," George states. "Bad is very knowledgeable and not bad with a sword. I've got incredible aim and marksmanship skills."

Dream didn't want to admit it out loud, but he was happy he wasn't alone. He was a lot less scared having his best friend, a muffin, and a kinda cute guy to help him out.

———

Word Count: 2066

I know Dream getting his butt kicked by skeletons wasn't too believable, but I needed a way to unite all of the guys. Please forgive me! 🙈

Published: June 28th


	5. Acquire Hardware

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Everyone had somewhat relaxed since the ravine trip. Dream did try to convince them to go home for the last time, but failed. None of them would budge. After an hour of walking, they entered a source forest. The terrain was a little hard to navigate, but Sapnap was good about finding the best paths up and down the hills. George would've thought the walk was peaceful had it not been for the two cackling idiots joking around for the last ten minutes.

"Dude Dude Dude, listen to this one!" Sapnap says. He clears his throat. "British people be like 'rOiGhT, lOoK aT tHiS bEaUcHiFuL bLoOdY wOhK oF aAaHt!'" Dream leans against a tree holding his sides as he laughs. Sapnap wipes tears from his eyes.

Dream takes a deep breath and says, "I got one! Ok, British people be like 'kEn I gEt A cUpA wAa Aa?'" Laugh breaks out amongst the two. Bad begins to giggle along, but George shoots him a look, making him stop.

"Are you stupid?" George asks.

"aRe YoU sChEwPiD?" Sapnap repeats.

George rubs his forehead. "Stop it," he pleads.

"sToHp Et!" Sapnap repeats. Dream begins to notice the irritation on George's face and decides to stop. Sapnap, on the other hand, decided to push George just a little bit more.

"Are you fucking stupid?" George asks.

"aRe YoU FaCkEn ScHeWpId?" Sapnap falls to the floor, struggling to breathe.

"LANGUAGE!" Bad yells at them.

"Um, Sapnap?" Dream asks. "I think this has gone a little too far."

George gives them both a dirty look. "You've been at this for how long and NOW you think it's time to stop?"

Dream gives him an apologetic look. "I really wasn't trying to hurt you. I'm sorry."

"I'm not!" Sapnap says. "That was fucking funny!"

"LANGUAGE!!!!!!!" Bad yells again. "I swear you muffins have no filter."

"What Sapnap was TRYING to say was that we joke around with each other when we go on walks. It had nothing to do with you," Dream explains with a smile. "I promise."

Before George could respond, Bad says, "Hey, uh, guys? I kind of need to, well, use the bathroom. Can we stop?"

"I could use a few minutes of privacy as well," Dream admits. "Let's stop here." He points to an open area with a few stumps that George and Sapnap could sit on.

"Ok, while we are gone, please don't kill each other," Bad pleads, looking at George and Sapnap.

"We'll be fine," George says. He watches as Dream and Bad wonder into the woods for some privacy. As soon as they are out of earshot, George turns to Sapnap and asks, "Why do you hate me?"

"Hmm?" Sapnap hums, not paying attention to George as he rolls up his shirt sleeves.

George scoffs. "You've been nothing but rude ever since we started helping Dream. What did I do to you?"

Sapnap let's out a long, exaggerated sigh. "Look man, I don't hate you, but I don't like you either. You're kinda in the middle right now." Sapnap thinks for a moment, then continues with, "It's always been just me and Dream. We don't need another dude coming in and taking my spot. Got it?"

"I'm not trying to take anyone's spot," George says. "Am I not allowed to help out a friend?"

Sapnap rolls his eyes. "Dude, y'all aren't friends. He doesn't even know you."

"Y'all," George repeats. "I hate that word," he giggles.

"Hey, if I can't make British people jokes, then you're not allowed to disrespect the 'y'all', ok?" Sapnap asks jokingly.

"Alright, fiiiiine," George whines. For the first time, they both find that there is no tension between the two. Like, cracking a small joke was enough to settle them down.

But the tension returned just as fast as it had left when Sapnap asks, "Why are you really here? Bad is the kind of guy to do this for strangers, but you're not. What's your reasoning?"

George shrugs. "Honestly? I don't know," he admits. "I felt a connection when I talked to Dream. I felt like he was going to be important to me. It's hard to explain." George scrunches his face as he tries to search his brain for answers.

After a moment, Sapnap laughs lightly. "Dude, are you gay or something?" George shoots him a shocked look. "Wait, no," Sapnap says apologetically. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. Like, if you are, that's, uh, that's fine. It's just, you reminded me of Dream when he saw-"

"Just stop talking," George mumbles. Sapnap knew he struck a chord in George, but refused to push farther. He didn't want to make the poor guy think he actually hated him.

"GUYS!" Dream yells from somewhere in the trees. "COME CHECK THIS OUT!"

When the three guys find him, Dream is standing in front of a hole in the ground. Down the hole is a cave with some sort of wooden pathway sticking out of it towards the bottom. "That's a mineshaft, right?" Dream asks.

"I believe so," Bad answers, "But based off of the cobwebs around it, I think it's abandoned."

"We need to get down there!" Dream exclaims. "We still need to make armor and stuff for the big fight."

Sapnap groans. "Seriously? Why didn't we think of this before we left."

"Or when we were in that ravine?" George asks.

"It doesn't matter now. We can't turn around. I'm going in!" Dream prepared himself to jump, but Bad grabs his arm.

"Dream, that jump could kill you!" Bad let's his arm go. "Let's not be muffins about this and figure out a safe way down."

Before anyone knows it, Dream goes diving down the hole. George and Sapnap both yell, "DREAM!" in unison while Bad screams. Dream lands in a cobweb, slowing him down enough to reach the mineshaft without hurting himself.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Sapnap yells down to Dream.

Dream begins laughing. "You guys all just scream at me when I was being a genius!"

Sapnap rubs his face, "I thought you were going to die for sure."

"We need to find a safe way down," Bad says. "There's no way I'm attempting that jump."

Sapnap nods in agreement. "Yeah, sorry, I'm not ready to die today." As the two start looking around for another way down, George backs up and takes a running start, leaping into the hole and making it into the cobweb. Dream cheers for him as he helps George down. "Ok, if he can do it, so can I!" Sapnap yells. He tries to jump down, but Bad stops him.

"NO!" Bad yells. "You muffins are NOT leaving me here. It's going to be night soon, so we should start building a small place to live in tonight." Sapnap curses George under his breath as Bad drags him away.

"So, why did you jump down?" Dream asks George as he pulls a torch off of the wooden wall to light his path. "I didn't take you as the fearless type."

George shrugs. "I'm not, but seeing you in the cave earlier made me think that you'd need help."

"Hey I was distracted!" Dream playfully says. "I mean, how would you feel if you were suddenly on your way to kill a creature that could literally absorb you?"

"Same as I feel right now," George says matter-of-factly. "Scared, nervous, flustered, and a little sweaty." His comment makes Dream laugh, making him smile. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

"Iron and coal. But if we find diamonds, we need to get them." Dream puts the torch down and opens up his bag, then growls. "Damn, I don't have a pickaxe."

George reaches into his own bag and pulls out a stone one. "Just take mine. I'll cover you and watch for mobs."

The two carefully walk down one of the paths of the mineshaft, attempting to stay as silent as possible. George draws his bow back, prepared to fire at anything that came their way. To their surprise, it was quiet. There was a few zombies and a creeper, but nothing too scary. After 20 minutes of mining, Dream has accumulated a good amount of coal and a few pieces of iron, enough to make everyone a reliable sword and shield.

"I wonder how much iron we'll need to make everyone full iron armor," George ponders aloud.

"88," Dream responds, not even giving George time to do the math.

"How'd you figure that out?" George asks in surprise.

"My dad is a weapon smith and he worked closely with our armorer. I remember that dude saying it takes 24 iron to make a full set, so that'd be 72 for you three. Because I already have a chest plate, that's just an addition 16 needed to finish my set. Of course, you have to add more to that total when making tools and shields."

George looks at Dream, impressed. "Wow, and all this time I thought the zombies ate your brains already."

Dream smiles and shakes his head. "Nope. I've still got a few brain cells to function off of."

"You should use them more often," George states. "You're reckless and we don't want you hurting that pretty face of yours."

"Aw! You think I'm pretty?" Dream teases.

"Oh shut up, you idiot," George laughs. While the torch emitted an orange-red glow, Dream could see George's cheeks light up with color, making him blush back. George bites have lip as he looks away. "We should keep moving." Dream nods and they continue walking further into the mineshaft.

"Bad," Sapnap groans. "Why did you pick so many flowers? We literally just needed wood and some wool for beds."

"Because they are pretty!" Bad says, handing him a rose. "This one is for you!"

Sapnap looks at the rose and smiles. "You're too pure for this world."

Bad gives Sapnap a "tough guy" look. "No I'm not! See this face! Look at this face. I'm hardcore! Grrrr."

Sapnap laughs. "You know what? You're right. You're intimidating, Bad."

Bad playfully punches Sapnap in the arm. Sapnap recoils and whines in pain. "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry!" Bad exclaims. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"

Sapnap let's out a small giggle. "It's a joke, Bad. But yeah, you're a bad boy. Sure."

Bad rolls his eyes and puts the flowers on a piece of wood the two decided was going to be a table. "You got the wool?" Bad asks.

Sapnap nods as he pulls a large bundle of wool out of his bag. "You will not believe the amount of sheep I had to kill to get this!"

"Oh nice!" Bad says. "We can cook some mutton tonight!"

Sapnap goes pale. "Nope. Can't do that."

"Why not?" Bad questions.

"I.....uh......dropped it," Sapnap lies.

Bad raises his eyebrows. "Dropped it?"

"Yep."

Bad slowly nods. "Oooooook then. Hopefully Dream has enough food for us to eat tonight. Please don't drop the mutton next time, ok?"

Sapnap nods quickly. "Yeah, of course Bad. It won't happen again."

After an hour of mining, Dream was able to find two stacks of coal and a stack of iron. They were still able to avoid most monsters thanks to the torches left in the mineshaft by whoever was there last. George helped Dream mine a way out and they reach the surface just as the sunset starts.

"Woah," Dream says, staring at the sky. "It looks so beautiful out here."

George shrugs. "It's alright. Nothing special."

Dream looks at George like he's crazy. "Dude! Do you not see all of the pinks and reds up there?! And over there, the sky fades into a deep purple. It's like a rainbow exploded! How is that just 'alright'?!"

"I can't see half of it," George says. His face said he was just fine, but Dream felt the weight that his words carried.

"George, I'm sorry, I just-"

"It's alright, Dream. I grew up like this. Can't miss what I've never had, you know? This is my normal." George gives a reassuring smile.

While George seemed alright, Dream couldn't help but feel bad. He felt like he had been messing everything up. First, the British people jokes. Now, reminding him that he'd never see life the way Dream saw it. Dream decided right then to make sure he didn't do anything to make George feel anything but happy. Because after three strikes, you're out.

And he was starting to realize that he desperately didn't want to strike out.

———

Word Count: 2098

A/n: How are you liking the chapter lengths? I'm considering making them longer because I want to give people more to read, but Idk if that's something anyone would be interested in. Just let me know in the comments if you want to voice your opinion. Thank you for reading!!! 💕

Published: July 1st


	6. The Deep End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream and George manage to locate the small hut Sapnap and Bad made just as the day became night. Once the door was closed, Dream could hear zombies groaning right outside. But come daytime, they'd either retreat into the darkness of a cave or burn trying. Dream wasn't too concerned about them.

The place itself wasn't too big. There were four beds, all different colors, all next to each other with a little bit of room on each side to allow someone to walk. In the corner of the room, there was a furnace and a large wooden block surrounded by four wooden steps. That was it, besides a torch of two on the wall. One room, four guys. Can't be that hard! At least, Bad didn't think so.

The night started out alright. Dream fished a few pieces of raw steak out of his inventory and Bad cooked them in the furnace for everyone. The four ate on the wooden steps that Bad swore looked like chairs even though they were uncomfortable. After dinner, they fell into their beds. Bad laid on a black bed closest to the furnace while Dream laid on a green bed closest to the door. Sapnap's was red and in between Dream's and George's, who was blue. They laid in silence for a few moments before Sapnap spoke up.

"I'm bored and I'm not tired. How about we do something to get to know each other?" Dream was skeptical. Sapnap wasn't the type of person to offer to play games. He would rather arm wrestle than actually have conversations. But here Sapnap was, a big smile on his face, waiting for the other three to join his game.

"I think that this is a great opportunity for us!" Bad says. "We're a team now! We should at least get to know the basics about everyone!"

George sits up and pulls his legs to his chest, ready to play whatever game they were about to suggest. Dream, on the other hand, was more reluctant. He had a feeling that something was up. But nothing was up. Sapnap legitimately wanted to get to know the new guys better.

"We are going to play a game that I've named 'Bullshit!'" Sapnap says proudly, followed by Bad whispering, "Language!" Sapnap rolls his eyes, then begins to explain his game. "So, we take turns asking one person a question. They can answer it with either a truth or a lie. If the person who asks the question thinks that the answer was a lie, they get to yell-"

"DON'T you say it, Sapnap!" Bad says. "If you guys are going to curse, save it for the game."

Sapnap shrugs. "Well, you guys get it. Here, I'll go first," Sapnap looks at the three other guys, then his eyes land on Bad. "So, Bad, what is your favorite color?"

"Oooo I don't know. I think I'll go with red. Red is a good color. It's on my jacket. I like it," Bad responds.

"Ok, I think that's true so I won't yell BS. Bad, you now pick someone to ask a question," Sapnap directs.

Bad's eyes jump directly to Dream. "If you could have one superpower, what would it be?"

"Oh easy. Invisibility," Dream says.

"Really?" George asks. "You don't seem like the kind of guy that'd want to disappear."

"Well, it'd be nice to escape for a little bit, you know? Especially right now. I'm feeling all of the feelings and I don't understand half of them!" Dream chuckles. "Ok, George, I've got one for you!"

As the game continues, the guys learn a lot about each other. George ended up sharing a time when some of the other village kids thought he was bilingual because he talked fast and with an odd accent. Dream talked about his awkward first kiss and, after George asked who it was with, Sapnap had claimed he was Dream's first kiss, making everyone bust out into laughter. Sapnap even talked about that one time his mom walked in on him singing and dancing to a song called "Rasputin." Their evening was filled with laughter and joy as the bonded over stupid stories where they all must've shared the same single brain cell. They had completely forgotten about the bullshit part of "Bullshit" because they were honest the whole time.

It was going well until Dream asked Bad, "Bad? Have you ever fallen in love?"

Bad's smile fell as he thought long and hard about the question before finally responding with, "No."

"Bullshit," George says.

"Dream asked the question, so he has to be the one to say it," Sapnap attempts to explain.

"I don't care," George says. "Bull. Shit."

Bad covers his face. "George, come on. Let's not kill the mood."

"You've kept it to yourself for over nine months, Darryl." George gets off his own bed and hugs Bad. "It'll make you feel better if you talk about it. Besides, you were called out on a lie and it's the rules to tell the truth."

Bad closes his eyes tightly, staying silent. Dream felt extremely bad for asking what he thought was an innocent question. He could see the pain in Bad's face as he thought about it. "His name was Zak," Bad says, eyes still closed. "He was my best friend. We did everything together." Bad smiles as he starts to recount old memories. "In our village, all the kids would make these clubs where we would do activities together. Each club had a name and a couple kids who were in charge. Zak was the leader of a group he called 'The Invaders'. I was the leader of a group called 'The Munchies' and I was looking for other people to be leaders of my group. I was made fun of a lot and had barely any respect amongst all of the other kids, so when Zak asked if he could be a leader, I was shocked. He was the kid everyone liked and wanted to be friends with and he chose me."

Bad starts to relax a little as he talks. "So, me being the huge nerd I was, I decided to 'interview' him to see if he would be a good leader. It started off serious, but quickly spiraled into chaos as he began giving the worst answers to the questions I asked. I asked how he would make sure everyone got along and he said he'd just kick anyone out who was being mean. Then, things got worse when he started playing pranks on me. Suddenly, every kid in the village would torment me with stupid phrases he said to me to get me all bothered."

"And you liked this guy?" Sapnap asks, confused.

"I did." Bad admits. "I don't know why, but I couldn't stay away. I couldn't stay mad at him. He'd make me so angry, but then he'd come back and show me how kind and amazing he was and I'd instantly forget about anything that happened." Bad smiles fondly as his eyes begin welling you with tears. "I think it was his laugh that got me. Every time he'd mess with me, he'd laugh. Not at me, with me. He'd show off his perfect smile which would make me smile and I couldn't help but laugh along. I don't know if any of you get it, but I think you know you're in love when you can listen to that person laugh for hours on end without growing tired of it."

George lays his head on Bad's shoulder, still not letting go. He looks at Dream and fondly smiles, hearing Dream's wheeze echo in his head.

"So, Why didn't you two end up together?" Dream asks.

Bad shivers thinking about it. "Because we ran out of time." He takes a deep breath. "We were walking in the forest right by the village just talking. I decided that day that I would tell him how I felt. I'd tell him that I wanted a relationship and that I was ready to make a commitment to him. But then pillagers showed up. We were too far away from the village for anyone to hear our screams for help. So instead, Zak distracted them so that I could go run to get help. When we got back...he.....he was..." Bad gets choked up on his own words. He turns his head towards George and begins crying, unable to finish his sentence.

"By the time help came," George says, picking up where Bad left off, "They were gone and they took Zak with them. It's been more than nine months and we still never found him."

"I love him so much," Bad sobs. "I'd give anything to see him again. I just want to hold his hand and tell him how much he means to me. But I'll never get that." Dream and Sapnap both get up and embrace Bad in their arms. To an outsider, it would look like an awkward group hug. But to them, it was a sign of friendship and understanding. After a few moments of hugging, they slowly separated from each other and retreated into their beds, ready to sleep off the sadness.

The front door creaking open and then closed wakes Dream up. He sits up and looks around the room. Nothing had changed. But then he looked to the beds. George was missing. Dream slips his boots on and heads outside. George had built himself a staircase on the side of the shack to the roof where he was bundled up in his blanket, writing in a book similar to Sapnap's. Dream quietly walks up the staircase, doing his best to not alert the spider and creeper chilling by the house.

"Hey!" George whispers when he notices Dream joining him. He bends down the corner of his current page before putting the book down on to the side.

"Hey! Whatcha writing?" Dream asks.

George winces. "Promise not to laugh?"

Dream offers his pinky to George. "I swear it."

George giggles as he locks pinkies with him. "Ok, so, the day Zak went missing was the same day I became friends with Darryl. He was lonely so I decided I'd become friends with him. I never really knew Zak, but I feel like I know so much about him after hearing Bad talk about him." He picks up the book and opens it to the first page. He rubs his thumb over a date in the corner, dated back almost nine months exactly. "I decided one day to start writing about Darryl. I've kept record of every moment we've shared because, one day, I want to give it to Zak. That way, he can catch up on what he missed."

"You're going to give it to him?" Dream asks.

George smiles bashfully. "I know it sounds so stupid, but if he's really still out there somewhere, I'd hate for him to miss out."

"That's actually really sweet," Dream tells him. "Maybe one day, you'll get to share that with him."

"Well, I don't know if it'll happen anymore," George explains. "With everything going on, if Zak is alive and out there, who knows if I'll live long enough to give it to him?"

"What are you talking about?" Dream asks.

"I'm not convinced I'm going to make it through to the end of this journey," George says nervously. "I'm not like you, Dream. I'm not confident, or smart, or good in combat, or ready to take on a creature that I thought was just a scary bedtime story."

"Woah woah woah. Ok, calm down," Dream says as he grabs George's hands. "You're going to make it. We all are. I don't want you to think for a second that you're not good enough, ok? We are all going to return home safe, I promise."

"Please don't get my hopes up, Clay." There was something about hearing George day his real name that made his stomach fill with butterflies. George was able to take a name he hated and make it sound like the most beautiful word in the world.

"I'm not. I'm just telling the truth. Bullshit me if you want, but it's all true. I'm swearing to you right now that I will make sure you get home safely." Dream offers his pinky to George again, who giggles as he takes it in his.

"Let's heads back inside and get some sleep. We've got some hunting to do if we're going to find that wither. Sapnap mentioned during dinner that he found a path of withered roses that we could follow." George grabs his book and pen and wraps his blanket around him tighter. "Oh, and Dream?" George smiles. "Thank you for this. I really needed it." George quietly walks down the steps, leaving Dream a blushing mess on the roof. He decided to wait a few minutes before going inside to avoid anyone possibly seeing his face on fire.

The next morning, the boys packed everything up, deciding to leave the furnace as well as the shack alone in case they needed it on their way back. Bad helped Dream pack up the beds while Sapnap and George looked over the maps.

"The roses are heading southwest. I say we follow them today and see where we end up and just go from there," Sapnap decides. "Thoughts?" He asks George.

"Sounds good to me, but if we see a lake, can we stop? I feel disgusting," George asks.

"Yeah, of course," Sapnap says. "We are starting to smell Bad anyway."

Bad grabs the flowers left that he didn't use to dye the beds and shoved them into his bag as he says, "We definitely need to bathe. Especially that one." He points to Dream, who sticks his tongue out at him.

They exit the small shack. While it was cramped and uncomfortable, it still held a great night of memories for them. Their first night outside of the village was spent bonding. Sapnap guides everyone to the flower trail and they begin their walk into the forest.

The walk was fine at first, but something off to the side catches George's eyes. "Um, guys?" George asks. He points at a flock of sheep, all missing their wool. "Why are they naked?"

Dream wheezes at the sheep, having to lean on George to keep from falling over. "They're n a k e d!" He barely manages to say.

"If they want to be naked, then let them," Sapnap says defensively.

Bad loudly gasps in realization. "You didn't drop the mutton! You just couldn't kill them!"

"Of course I couldn't kill them!" Sapnap says, pointing to the flock. "There's a baby in there and I couldn't tell which ones its parents were. I would've felt horrible if I killed its momma."

Sapnap's statement only makes Dream laugh even harder than before, nearly pushing George to the ground. "Mr. Cool-Tough-Guy can't kill a sheep!"

George pushes him back up as he laughs, "Stop it! You're going to crush me!"

"It's not my fault you're so short and small!" Dream teases.

"I'm literally average height. You just happen to be a giant!" George teases back. They both continue laughing as Sapnap stares at the sheep, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Bad claps his hands to get everyone's attention. "Ok, come on muffins. Focus! We need to get going!" He pulls Sapnap by the arm as George and Dream follow behind, still trying to recover from their laughing fit.

At around midday, Sapnap finally finds a lake right off of their path. The four guys excitedly rush to the miniature beach by the lake, but stop before jump into the water, realizing that they weren't smart enough to pack extra clothes.

"So, how should we do this?" George asks. "I don't know about you, but I'm torn. I can't get my clothes wet, but I'm not ready to strip naked in front of you guys."

Dream leans in and whispers, "n a k e d," into George's ear, both erupting into giggles, thinking about the sheep.

"Ok, lovers, that's enough!" Sapnap shouts. Both immediately fall silent, making Sapnap smirk. He finally found a way to shut them up. "Let's just strip to our underwear. We'll be mostly in water anyway. Let's just act like adults and not be immature, ok?" Everyone nods in agreement as they begin undressing. George can't help but take notice of Dream shirtless. He took a deep breath in, puffing out his toned chest. George had to look away before his face changed colors again.

One by one, the guys entered the lake. George was first, yelping when his foot touched the cold water. He slowly eased himself into it and was eventually ok enough to go all the way in. Sapnap didn't pay attention to George and canon-balled into the water, only to shoot back up and yell about how cold it was. Bad and Dream were the last ones in, going as fast as they could to warm up to the water. After a few minutes of shivering, the four were having a blast in the water, splashing each other and playing their own version of Marco Polo. They opted to stay on the shallow end of the water so that they all could stand, but Dream eventually decided to go deeper.

He swam out until his feet could no longer touch the bottom. He took a deep breath in, then let himself fall under the surface. Dream pops back up out of the water, his blonde hair now dark and stuck to his forehead. He sees George getting out of the water and waves at him. George starts to wave back, but instead screams. Just then, Dream feels a hand wrap around his ankle and pull him underwater.

———

Word Count: 2983

A/n- Gave a longer chapter a try! We'll see how it goes! Thank you for reading! 😁💕

Published: July 1st


	7. Throwaway Joke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream tried to gasp for air, but instead swallows water as he's dragged down to the bottom of the lake. The hand around his ankle was gripping him tightly and, despite kicking the shit out of whatever was holding him, would not let go. In the darkness of the water, Dream is able to make out a crowd of glowing blue eyes growing closer. He starts to feel his lungs burn as he looses what little breath he has left.

"It's a man! WITH A TRIDENT!" George yells, running back to the water with Dream's sword in his hand.

Sapnap screams as he feels something grab him. "ITS A GURGLER!" He manages to yell before being dragged under the water.

Bad swims to Sapnap and dives under the water to help free him from the Drowned holding onto him. The Drowned was pulling Sapnap towards the area that Dream was in. Bad pries the Drowned's fingers off of Sapnap's legs as Sapnap desperately swims upwards. Just before he lost his breath, Bad was able to get Sapnap free. They both surfaced just as George dove into the deep end of the lake.

George swam down, trying his best not to cut himself on the iron sword in his left hand. Below him, he could see Dream wrestling to get his ankle free. Blood drifted up in the water as the Drowned's nails ripped into Dream's skin. George swings the sword down at the Drowned, but the water significantly slows the blade down, doing little damage to the monster. Realizing that the sword won't help much, he lets go of it and lets it float to the surface and tries to pull Dream free instead.

The more George pulled, the more the Drowned would rip into Dream's flesh. The Drowned with the trident tried to take George, but he was able to kick the thing away from him. The Drowned threw his trident at George and just barely missed his chest. The trident grazed over George's right arm, leaving three bloody streaks where the trident passed. Below him, George could see that Dream wasn't struggling anymore.

George swam to the surface and gasped for air. "MY BOW!" he yelled to Bad and Sapnap, who had just reached reached the shore. Sapnap picks up the bow and a few arrows and throws it. George manages to catch it just as he's pulled back under the water. He loads an arrow into his bow and fires at the Drowned pulling him down. It pierces the monster's head and sends it floating down to the bottom of the lake. George got excited when he realized he found a way to fight back. He looks back to Dream, who was being taken to some sort of small underwater temple. He fires an arrow at the Drowned holding him and it lands in the monster's arm, making it let go of Dream. George swims over to Dream and pulls him to the surface as a hoard of the monster's follow them.

George surfaces and takes in a deep breath. He holds Dream in his left arm as he paddles with his right. His arm was burning from the trident hit, but he was only focused on getting to shore. Sapnap jumped into the water and helped bring Dream to the sand. The two drag him out of the water just in time to escape the Drowned that were right behind them.

As much as George wanted to take a breather, he couldn't. Dream was unconscious and his face was a very light shade of blue.

"He's not breathing!" Sapnap yells.

George crouches onto the ground. "Sapnap, does he have a pulse?" he asks as he turns Dream's head to the side, allowing a little bit of water to drain from his nose.

Sapnap shakes his head. "Either I cant find it, or he doesn't."

George moves Sapnap's fingers to a spot in Dream's wrist. "Keep your fingers there and tell me when you feel a pulse. Just stay calm." George looks down at Dream's shredded ankle and says, "Bad? Start wrapping his ankle. We don't want him loosing anymore blood." Bad starts digging through his bag and pulls out a bundle of wool and a small first aid kit. George turns Dream's head back to the center and begins pressing firmly onto his chest three times. After a few beats, he does it again. He then pinches Dream's nose and opens his mouth, breathing into him a few times. He then returns to pressing against his chest. The pain is George's arm would've been unbearable had it not been for Dream. In that moment, he didn't care about anything except reviving his friend.

Just as he went to breathe into him again, Sapnap shouts, "IVE GOT A PULSE!" His tell was followed by Dream coughing up water. George turns his face to the side to keep him from choking. He takes a few deep breaths before turn his head and opening his eyes. Dream studies George's worried look as he towers over him. George was pale and his deep brown eyes were red. But his worried expression becomes one of relief as he pulls Dream up and into a hug.

Dream tried to hug him back, but he brushed against George's hurt arm, making him recoil in pain. "You're arm," Dream says softly. His voice was rough, almost sounding like Dream was struggling to speak.

"I'm fine," George says, gripping his arm. "I'm so thankful you're ok."

Sapnap punches Dream. "Don't you EVER do stupid stuff like that ever again!" Sapnap has definitely been crying. His face was all puffy. "You scared the shit out of all of us!"

"Sapnap, calm down," Bad says. "George literally brought him back to life. Give him a little before you yell at him."

Dream looks at George. "You brought me back?"

George avoids eye contact. "Someone had to do CPR and no one else was jumping in. I did what I had to do."

Dream pulls him into a hug, avoiding the gashes on his arm this time. "Thank you," he whispers. George doesn't respond, but Dream could feel him smile against his shoulder.

"Let's set up camp here tonight," Bad decides. "We need to make sure Dream recovers ok before we continue." Bad gets up and heads for a cluster of trees to get wood.

Dream starts to get up. "Bad, I'm fine!" But as soon as he puts weight on his right ankle, he falls back down. That's when he notices his ankle is wrapped up in wool.

"That Drowned fucked your ankle up," Sapnap explains. "Bad cleaned and wrapped it while George kissed you to life."

George laughs, turning away from them to hide his red face. "When you say it like that, it sounds really inappropriate."

Sapnap helps Dream up and wraps his arm around his shoulder to help support him as they walk to Bad. George looked back to the water and noticed his bow and Dream's sword were still in the water. They thankfully drifted back to shore. He picked them up and followed Sapnap and Dream away from the dangerous lake.

Sapnap was able to fish for their dinner that night. While unseasoned cod wasn't Dream's first choice of food, he knew he couldn't complain. They only had so many options and had finished off what Dream had left in his bag for lunch. This wooden shack was almost identical to the previous one, the only difference this time being the order that the beds were in. Dream would be sleeping right next to George tonight.

"George, please let me wrap your arm," Bad nearly demands. "Just because it isn't bleeding as bad anymore doesn't mean that you don't need to wrap it."

"But it hurts, Bad!" George whines. "I don't want anyone to touch it."

"But it can get infected!" Bad reminds him for the fifth time since the incident.

"How about this, you hold my hand while he wraps your arm and you squeeze whenever you feel pain?" Dream offers.

George begrudgingly obliges. Dream limps to George's bed and offers out his hand. George takes Dreams hand and Bad takes his arm.

"So, George?" Bad asks sheepishly. "How mad would you be if I told you that you need stitches?"

George feels his blood run cold. "Tell me that's a joke, Bad. Please tell me you're joking."

"Looking at it now, it's a lot deeper than I originally thought it'd be," Bad explains. "Honestly, we shouldn't have waited this long to do something about it, but you somehow convinced me that you were fine. I'm sorry, but I need to do this, George."

George groans, lowering his head. "I hate needles."

Dream gently places his hand under George's chin and lifts his head up to meet his eyes. "I'll be right here, ok? I've got you." Dream pulls George towards him and lays George's head against his chest, still holding his hand.

"Ok, George. You ready?" Bad asks.

George buries his head into Dream's light green hoodie and lets out a muffled, "I guess so."

The first prick was the hardest for George. He felt the cold needle pinch his skin and the silk string enter his arm. He tightly clutched Dream's hand as he winced into his hoodie. Dream ran his hand through George's dark hair, whispering to him that he'd be ok. As time went on, the stitches become more and more bearable. By the time Bad had finished, George had calmed down a little. His heart wasn't racing nearly as fast and his whines got quieter as he listened to Dream speak. Bad cut the extra string hanging from the stitches and packed it away into his first aid kit.

George didn't want to move after his stitches were done. He felt so comforted in Dream's arms and he didn't want to leave. The warmth radiating off of his body felt welcoming. Dream didn't move either. He hated seeing his friend in pain and would hold him as long as he needed.

"Dude, that's going to leave a gnarly scar!" Sapnap says, looking at George's arm. "Well, three gnarly scars, I guess. I'm jelly."

"Jelly?" George asks, looking up from his spot on Dream's chest for the first time since the stitches started.

Sapnap nods. "Hell yeah! You look badass!"

The three look at Bad expectantly. "You're not going to correct me?" Sapnap asks.

"No," Bad responds, "Cause you're right." Sapnap and Bad laugh as they fall into their beds.

"I should probably get to bed," Dream says, letting go of George. "We need to rest up and hope we are good to go in the morning."

George sadly nods. "You're right."

Dream takes off his hoodie and lays it on the foot of his bed. "Goodnight George."

"Goodnight," George smiles, allowing himself to fall asleep.

Dream wakes up to the smell of baking bread. He sits up and sees Sapnap pulling a fresh loaf of bread out of the furnace. "How did you get the wheat to make that?!" Dream asks excitedly.

"We're super close to a village. Bad is over there now, trading with the townsfolk to get some more supplies before we head out." Sapnap blows on the loaf, attempting to cool it off.

"Is that bread?" George asks, sitting up in his bed. He was wearing Dream's hoodie. Dream giggles as George notices him staring at the hoodie. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I just got the chills really bad last night and I couldn't find my bag in the dark. Your hoodie was right on your bed so I thought I'd borrow it." He groans in pain as he tried to slip his hurt arm out of the sleeve.

Dream stops him. "It's good, dude. You can keep it on for now." He stands and limps over the the furnace, his ankle feeling much better than the previous night. "It looks better on you anyways," he says with a wink.

George pulls the hood over his messy head of hair and joins Dream and Sapnap by the furnace. Sapnap cuts the loaf into three pieces and hands the other guys one piece.

"What about Bad? Shouldn't he get a share?" Dream asks.

George rolls the long sleeves of the hoodie up to his elbows. "He's allergic to something in it. Gluten, I think?"

"He ate with the other villagers anyway," Sapnap tells them. "He was 'bonding' with them." He rolls his eyes. "Honestly, he was trying to become their best friend so that he could get discounts on their products."

As they eat breakfast, Dream notices a dark red spot on his hoodie sleeve, right where George got hurt. "Hey, I think you bled through your wrappings," he says, pointing to the spot.

George looks at the spot, then groans. "I'm so sorry, Dream. I'll wash it out, I promise." He huffs. "Dammit."

"Oh my goodness, language!" Bad yells, walking into the small shack with a paper bag in his arms. "Will you muffins ever learn to just say 'muffin' instead of cursing?" He tosses the paper bag to Sapnap. "I didn't know what you and Dream were in need of, so I just grabbed some basic self care stuff." Sapnap pulls a large, beautifully red apple out of the bag. Bad notices and snatches it from him. "Don't even think about it. That's George's."

George's tired eyes light up and he takes the apple from bad, cradling it like it was a newborn baby. "Bad, you're a saint!" He whispers, walking over to his bed to put it away.

Bad smiles proudly. "I know! The villagers also pointed me in the direction of the withered roses. They saw the wither come by here, but it didn't attack them. Just flew by."

"Are you going to be able to walk, Dream?" Sapnap asks.

"I think so. It hurts, but I didn't sprain it or anything. As long as I keep it protected in my boots, I should be good." Dream looks down at his foot and the soft, white wrappings on it. He couldn't really tell if he's be able to walk. He just knew he had to and that it'd be easier to tell them he's fine.

With Bad's help, George manages to slip out of the oversized green hoodie he had on. "I'm going to go wash it in the lake," George announces as he reaches for the door.

"I'll go with you," Sapnap says, jumping out of his seat. "We don't need to be alone by the lake." George didn't know how he felt about being alone with Sapnap again, but he didn't protest. He was terrified of the lake, so having someone there would make things easier. They both walk out, leaving Bad and Dream alone.

"Can we talk about what happened two days ago?" Sapnap asks as George dunks the hoodie into the water.

"There's nothing to talk about," George claims.

"No, there is," Sapnap mumbles. "I'm sorry if I hurt you. I don't know why I was so insensitive. I don't care if you're gay, straight, or fuck unicorns. You can love whoever you want."

George giggles. "I'm glad I'm allowed to fuck unicorns."

Sapnap slaps his good arm. "I'm serious, man! I just don't want you to think that I've got a problem with that. I mean, I grew up with Dream for God's sake. He's really kept my mind open about these sort of things."

George looks at him quizzically. "How so?"

"He's bi," Sapnap states. "He came out to me a long time ago. It's been, like, six years. I was never homophobic or anything, but hearing my best friend gush over a hot guy took some getting used to. Now, nothing bothers me. It's just second nature. I just wanted to let you know that if you are, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

George smiles to himself. Things may never be perfect with Sapnap, but it made him feel good knowing that his sexuality wouldn't be a reason they'd fight. "Thank you, Nick."

"Shit, it sounds weird hearing you say my name," Sapnap jokes. They both laugh as George pulls the now clean sweatshirt out of the lake.

"I don't know what to do, Bad!" Dream begins to panic. "I barely even know him and he's making me so flustered!" For the last 15 minutes that Sapnap and George have been gone for, Dream had been having a breakdown about his love life. "I don't even know if he'd ever like me like that."

Bad starts packing up the wooden shack as he says, "Well, I can't tell you how George feels because only he knows that. How about you ask him?"

"I can't just ask him, Bad!" Dream scoffs. "We are starting to become friends. I can't ruin that this early because he makes my palms sweaty."

"If you feel that strongly about it, then don't tell him," Bad says, egging Dream on. He had similar chats with George before they met Dream and he knew how to help people. All he had to do was get the person to talk through whatever they were thinking.

"But I want to tell him!"

"Then TELL HIM!"

Dream sighs. "But what if I scare him away?"

Bad smiles and squeezes his hand. "There is nothing you could do that would ever scare him away. He cares about you a lot. You two are like magnets. My advice would be to give it time. If something is going to happen between you two, it'll happen organically. And if nothing happens, you don't have to worry about loosing him."

Dream hugs Bad. "You're right. Thank you."

Bad ruffles Dream's hair. "You're welcome, you muffin."

Just then, the door swings open. George proudly holds up Dream's hoodie. It was wet, but clean. "I got the blood out! It took some work, but I got it." He hands it to Dream. "It'll he wet for a little bit, but it'll dry in the sun."

Dream takes the hoodie from George. "Thank you. And feel free to borrow it whenever. It looked great on you."

George blushes as he grabs his bag from the bow empty floor of the shack. "Alright. Let's follow those flowers out of here!"

———

Word Count: 3063

Published: July 2nd


	8. Lion Hunter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Three days went by with still no sign of the Wither. The boys followed the flowers, but the trail appeared to be endless. Dream's ankle had been healing just fine and he was able to run on it pretty well. George's arm wasn't doing amazing, but it was better. Sapnap wasn't lying when he said that he'd have three badass scars. Dream found himself staring at the scars every once and a while, hoping that wasn't his third strike with George. After dealing with the Drowned, the group was much more careful about picking places to clean themselves and would just wash off and leave without playing games.

The air around them began to warm significantly as they found themselves at the start of a massive desert. Despite there not being any grass, there were still wither roses sticking out of the sand. "Do we have enough food and water for a few days?" Sapnap asks the group.

"We should be good to go," Dream responds.

"Good. There's no telling how long this desert will last for." Sapnap is the first to step into the warm sand, his feet digging into the ground whenever he tried to step.

"Are you going to be ok?" George asks Dream, motioning to his ankle.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Dream responds with a reassuring smile.

"Ok," George says, "but let me know if you need help. You can lean on me."

Dream ruffles George's hair as he teases him. "Ok, shorty. Let's hope I don't crush you."

"I'm average height!" George yells. They both laugh as they step into the desert.

Almost immediately, George sweats through his shirt. Disgusted with himself, he peels it off and shoves it into his bag, leaving him in a tank top that hugged his torso perfectly. Dream hadn't really noticed how toned George's arms were when they went swimming. He wasn't super buff, but he wasn't boney either. Dream decides to take his hoodie off because he was getting hot, but he couldn't tell if it was George or the desert making his temperature rise.

"Guys! Look!" Sapnap points in front of them. Not too far ahead was a pyramid. "I think that's one of those desert temples. I've never seen one in person before."

Dream takes off running towards the temple, yelling behind him, "LAST ONE THERE IS A ROTTEN EGG!" He starts laughing as he sprints all the way to the temple. Once he reaches it, he looks back to see that his three friends were still walking. George was laughing, shaking his head at Dream. Dream could practically hear George calling him an idiot. He decides to duck into the temple to look around before his friends got there.

The inside was dark and much cooler than outside. The only light coming into the open room was the entrance and a small opening at the top of the temple. On the ground, there was a weird pattern made out of colored terra-cotta and sandstone. Dream had remembered hearing about these places having treasure, but he didn't see any chests anywhere. He had thoroughly searched every corner of the place by the time his friends made it.

"Dude, why'd you run ahead?" Sapnap asks Dream. "What if there was something dangerous in here?"

"You guys were supposed to run with me!" Dream says.

"You're not acting like someone who just hurt their ankle," Bad points out. "Take it easy, ok?"

"Whatever. Now help me find the treasure!" Dream says, continuing his search.

While he looks around, George puts a furnace down. "I'm getting hungry and the Sun is draining all my energy. Anyone else hungry?"

Before anyone can answer, they hear someone outside yell, "SHIT!" followed by a large explosion that blasted a hole in the side of the temple. A girl with red hair flies through the opening and lands inches away from George, her sword skidding along the floor. She grunts, picks up her sword, and runs back out the way she came in.

The boys all stare blankly at the hole in the wall, the dust still settling from the explosion. Sapnap is the first one to speak up. "Yes George, I'll take something to eat," he says awkwardly, attempting to ignore what just happened.

The girl grunts again as a hissing sound starts. The dust finally settles, revealing her fighting a creeper and a couple of grey-ish zombies wearing yellow clothing. She backs up into the temple, hitting the creeper as it draws closer to her. She strikes it down with a final blow, killing it. She drops her sword and takes the bow off of her back, finishing off the weird looking zombies with ease. She drops the bow as she takes a minute to catch her breath.

She then notices the guys in the temple. "Wow, you guys were no help." Though her tone was tough and cold, her Australian accent made her sound cute. She attaches her bow to its holder on her back.

"You looked like you had it under control," Sapnap says, staring at her in awe.

The girl rolls her eyes. "Whatever. If I were you, I'd start heading to the village. It's quite the walk from here and you don't want to get stuck in a husk horde."

Dream looks down at the weird zombies, figuring those were the husks she was referring to. "What are they?"

The girl lets out a light laugh. "You guys must not be from around here. They're zombies that make you hungry when they touch you." She clutches her stomach. "Speaking of which, you guys don't happen to have any food to spare, do you? One of those things touched me and I'm starving."

George smiles as some cod finishes cooking in the furnace. "We've got some leftovers that you're welcome to have." He passes her a piece of fish on a napkin.

She smiles as she takes it. "You're a life saver!" George cooks two more pieces of fish for him and Sapnap as Bad gets to know the girl. After some time of talking to her, he learns that her name is Rose and that she's a warrior in their village. Instead of iron golems, her village decided to save their iron and hire special people to protect their village. Her village was also quite big, being twice the size of Dream's and George's villages combined. As she talked, Dream continued to search for the treasure.

"What's he doing?" Rose asks, pointing at Dream.

"He's looking for the nonexistent treasure in here," Sapnap says.

"Hey, dude!" Rose calls out to Dream. "This place was looted a very long time ago. Like, before any of us were even born. If you broke the terra-cotta, you would only find four empty chests. Don't waste your time."

Dream pouts and sits down next to George, disappointed that he wouldn't find anything of interest. George pats him on the back and says, "It's ok, you tried!" His hand lingers on Dream's back for a few moments, then drops when Rose starts talking to him.

"So, George, what brings you all out to the desert?" She asks.

George gets flustered for a moment. She was just asking him and not the group. "Well, uh, we're hunting a monster called the Wither. Have you seen anything come by with three heads, no arms, and can fly?"

Rose shakes her head 'no'. "Sorry. I can't help you there." Her eyes widen as she thinks. "But I know someone who can! One of the other warriors told me about a hallucination he had and it sounds almost exactly the same as what you described! Pack up! We're heading to my place." The group quickly packs up and Rose leads the way to her village.

She wasn't kidding when he said how big the village was. There were homes and businesses everywhere, the largest building being a two story church that was home to two Clerics. She led the group to a large house.

"Ok, so, one of the guys in there isn't too friendly. Be careful with who you talk to," Rose says. She points to Sapnap. "I'm looking at you, hothead."

Sapnap strikes a pose. "Finally, someone notices how hot I am." Rose laughs as she opens the front door.

The inside of the home was all one room except for a small bathroom off to the side. The walls were lined with bunk beds. All of them were empty except for one of the top bunks in the corner. Each bed had blackout curtains for privacy and a double chest connecting to it. In the middle of the room was a large table with some smokers and blast furnaces beside it. Two people sat at the table. One was a blonde girl wearing leather armor. The other was a guy with light brown hair. He had on chain mail armor, something Dream rarely saw. They were talking, but stopped when they saw the large group walk in.

The blonde jumped up and practically threw herself at Rose. "It's been so long! Where were you?!" The girl shouted.

"Calm down, Alyssa. I was gathering wood," Rose says.

"For two days?!" Alyssa asks.

Rose nods. "The forests have been super dangerous. The pillagers have built a new outpost in the dark oak forest so it took longer to get around."

Alyssa lets go when she notices the boys behind her. "Who's your friends?" she asks.

"This is Bad, Dream, and Sapnap," she says pointing to each of them. She then grabs George's hand and pulls him forward. "And this is George."

"Hi," George says shyly.

"Hi!" Alyssa says back. She turns to the guy still sitting at the table. "Zelk! Come say hi!"

Zelk stands up from the table, but doesn't come any closer to the group. He lingers back, sizing everyone up. 

"Zelk, where's Mega?" Rose asks.

Zelk tilts his bed to the only bed being used. "He's sleeping."

Rose walks towards the bed. "Then we wake him."

"He won't be happy," Zelk says.

"But I really need to talk to him. His hallucination was real!" She clubs up the ladder to Mega's bunk and shakes his arm. His eyes fly open and he grabs a sword to point it at Rose. "Woah, easy man!" Rose says, pushing the sword away. "I wanted to ask you about that thing you saw last night."

Mega rolls his eyes as he sits up in his bed. He stretches, then slides down the ladder. He makes his way over the furnace and grabs a kettle sitting on top of it. He grabs a cup and begins pouring himself some tea.

"Mega, please, tell me what you saw again," Rose pleads.

Mega glares at her as he takes a sip from his cup. He looked like he wanted to hurt her. "I told you he wouldn't be happy," Zelk says.

"When is Mega ever happy?" Rose asks. Mega sits down at the table, continuing to drink from the hot cup in his hands. "Come on, Mega! Please! There's four guys here that are hunting down a creature that matches what you said your hallucination looked like." Mega puts his cup down and looks over at the four boys, still awkwardly standing by the door. He motions for them to take a seat at the table across from him, annoyed that he had to talk to them. He then makes some sort of symbols with his hands towards Rose.

Rose takes a second to process Mega's hand signs, then says, "he wants you to describe the creature."

"Why couldn't he just say that?" Sapnap asks.

Mega gives him an annoyed look as Rose answers for him. "He's mute. Hasn't spoken a word as long as any of us have known him for. He talks using sign language." Mega signs something to her, then she translates it to, "He says you idiots need to tell him already and stop wasting his time."

Sapnap gives him a dirty look as Dream explains what the Wither looked like. "It's like a black flying ribcage with three heads. No arms or legs or anything else."

Mega nods in understanding. He goes back to his bed and opens the chest connected to it, pulling out a notebook. He opens it and, as he tries to find the right page, flips through drawings of the monsters that roam around in the dark. He had drawn everything from Creepers, to cave spiders, to the Drowned that Dream was realizing he was terrified of. Just seeing the picture sent shivers down his body. Each picture was labeled with the name of the monster in it. But when Mega stops going through the pages, he lands on a picture of the Wither with three large question marks by it where its name should have been. He looks at Dream expectantly, pushing the book towards him.

"Yeah, that's it," Dream confirms. "That's what we're looking for."

Mega begins signing to Rose. "It's been flying around here at night. It's looking for something," she says. "Mega takes the night shifts. He wants to know if you guys want to join him in case the thing shows up tonight."

"That'd be great!" Dream responds.

Zelk scoffs from the other side of the table. "No offense, but you guys aren't going to win if you fight it tonight. You guys need armor before that can happen."

As much as Dream didn't want to admit it, he knew Zelk was right. "Then we won't fight it. We'll just observe it and see how it acts. Do you guys have any spare iron?"

Rose, Alyssa, and Zelk all start laugh. Even Mega cracks a smile. "Sorry, but no," Rose says. "That's something that we've been low on. The miners return tomorrow morning, though. You guys are welcome to trade with them to get what you need."

"We don't have enough emeralds to trade for armor," Bad says, checking every inch of his bag for emeralds. He pulls out three. "This is all we've got."

"You know what? Our fletcher is always needing sticks to make arrows and stuff. I'll take you guys to get some wood tomorrow," Rose says. "I still need to get, like, another stack of logs anyway."

"That'd be amazing!" Dream says. "Thank you Rose."

Rose smiles at George. "Anything for a friend." George nervously laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. Dream notices Sapnap's face begin to grow red, but he couldn't tell why. "Actually, George, can I talk to you outside real quick?"

"Sure," George says, standing up. Rose grabs his hand and pulls him outside. Dream feels his chest burn as he watches them leave, feeling a little jealous. Mega retreats back to his bed while Zelk and Alyssa climb a latter that probably led to the roof, leaving Bad, Dream, and Sapnap alone.

"I don't get it," Sapnap says. "Why is she all over George?"

"I don't know, but I hate it," Dream admits, sadly. "Wait, why do you care if Rose hangs out with George?"

"Why do you care?" Sapnap asks in response.

"I-I don't," Dream stutters.

"Dude, don't tell me you think Rose is hot too," Sapnap says sadly. "We don't need to be fighting over the same girl."

Bad laughs, knowing exactly who Dream was thinking of. Dream kicks him under the table to make him stop. "Don't worry, I won't start a fight with you. Besides, George and Rose seem to be hitting it off anyway. You'll have to fight him for her."

Sapnap playfully cracks his knuckles. "That string beans is going down."

George bursts through the door with a small white cat with black stripes in his arms. "GUYS! LOOK WHAT I JUST DID!" He places the cat on the table. "I tamed a cat! I was telling Rose how much I've always wanted one and she introduced me to this little stray. He's mine now." The cat steps over to Dream and rubs its head against his arm.

Dream scratches under its head. "What's his name?"

"I haven't decided on one yet, so for now, he will be known as 'Cat'." George scoops the cat back up and cuddles him. George's wife smile warms Dream up. He starts to get a tingly feeling in his stomach.

"We should have a bonfire tonight!" Rose exclaims.

"Don't the monster's come out at night?" Bad asks nervously.

"This village is like a beacon at night. Mobs don't come anywhere near here unless they find someone just far enough from the light to chase down. Plus, Mega watches the village every night. We'll be safe." Rose smiles and winks at George. "You guys have to wait up for the Wither anyway. Let's hang out until then!"

"I'm in!" George says excitedly. He takes a seat next to Dream. "Can you pretty please join us tonight?" George asks him, giving puppy dog eyes.

Dream lightly shoves him. "Yeah, sure."

Rose leans over the table and grabs Sapnap's hands. "How about you, big boy?"

George hides his face in Dream's sleeve as he laughs while Dream and Bad do their best to hide their amusement. Sapnap looks at her, not quite knowing if he should feel excited or confused. "If you're there, I'm there," he finally decides to respond with.

"Great!" Rose says. "You guys can hang out here. I have to go do a perimeter check, but I'll be back soon. When I'm back, we'll get the party started." On her way out, she high-fives George. He winks at her and the both laugh, making Dream's chest hurt even more.

———

Word Count: 3012

I know this chapter wasn't too exciting, but I had to set a few things up for the next few chapters. I may have the next chapter out in a few hours. Hopefully you enjoyed!!!

Published: July 4th


	9. Spooky Scary Skeleton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream couldn't lie, the bonfire was a lot of fun. Zelk cooked chicken over the fire for everyone and, after dinner, Alyssa presented everyone with a cake. Rose started talking to Sapnap more than earlier. She still gravitated towards George, but Sapnap thought that this was still better than nothing. George sat close to Dream, still in his tank top. He seemed to be nervous about something, but didn't let it get in the way of having fun. Cat was rolling around on the sand, having a grand time. Dream had though the night couldn't get any better. He had no idea what he was in for.

"Hey Bad?" Zelk asks. "Alyssa and I are going to go check on Mega at the watch tower. You should come with us to check it out."

Bad nods. "Sounds like a plan!" He gets up and walks with them to the watch tower on the other side of the village. On her way out, Alyssa first bumps George.

"Sapnap!" Rose says. "I need your help with something inside." She grabs his hand. "Come on!" Before he has the chance to say anything, she is already pulling him inside. Before she closes the door, she crosses her fingers and looks at George with a big smile. Cat wonders inside right behind Rose. The door closes, leaving George and Dream alone by the warm fire.

The two sit in silence for a little bit. George's leg was bouncing as he stared into the flames. The village was extremely quite, only a few people walking around. "So, how are things with Rose?" Dream asks.

George shrugs. "Fine, I guess. I mean, I barely know her, but she seems cool. Sapnap will like her a lot."

"Sapnap?" Dream asks.

George nods. "She's been asking me about him all day. She could tell that he and I had some tension, so she was using me to see if it'd make him jealous. And because it did, she took it as a sign that he likes her." He laughs. "I still don't understand girls at all."

"Me either. I'm sure it'd be way easier to date a guy," Dream admits.

The Sun begins to set, casting a pink glow on everything around them. It was just the moment George had been waiting for. "You know, I got to admit it. This sunset is gorgeous."

Dream smiles and looks over at George, only to find him staring at him. He could feel himself starting to get lost in George's big brown eyes. He blushes and looks away. "Yeah, it looks nice out," Dream agrees.

George leans back on his hands as he watches the Sun go down. "This is amazing."

"Yep. We're just two....two-two men on a date," Dream jokes.

"I mean, we could be," George says. Dream bites the inside of his cheek, attempting to hide him smile. "Dream, I want to tell you something, but I want us to both be adults about it. If you don't feel the same way, know that it's ok and I won't let that change the fact that you're my friend." He wraps his hand into Dream's. "I think I know what Bad was talking about when he said the things about loving someone's laugh and being in love. I don't know if this is love yet, but I do know I want to give this a shot. Give us a shot. I know things are crazy right now so if you want to wait, I'm ok with that. I just wanted you to know that I-"

George is silenced when Dream gently presses his lips to George's. George's heart explodes knowing that Dream felt the same way he did. After a few seconds, the two pull away from each other.

Dream squeezes George's hand. "I think I'd like to give this a try too," he says softly.

"Guys!" Bad calls from down the road of the village. "It's here!" Dream helps George up and they quickly make their way to the watch tower, hands still locked together. They quickly run up the stairs and to the top of the tower. Alyssa and Zelk were both staring out into the desert beyond the village. Mega had his bow drawn and was aiming at something in front of him. Dream squints his eyes and just barely makes out the silhouette of the Wither. It wasn't moving. It was just hovering, looking at them in the watch tower. Dream felt like it was looking into his soul.

"It's been here a few minutes," Bad explains. "It tore up the birch forest over there and just stopped when it got here." Beyond the Wither, there was a field full of dead trees that were outlined by the moon rising behind it. "Where's Sapnap?" Bad asks.

"He had to help Rose with something," George responds. "We haven't seen him for a little bit."

Just then, the Wither lets out an awful screech and begins flying right for the watch tower. Mega fires his loaded arrow at the Wither. It absorbes it and continues flying towards the tower. Mega throws his bow down and draws his sword.

"We don't have our swords!" Dream says to Zelk.

"Go! We'll cover you!" He responds. He and Alyssa ready themselves to defend the tower and Dream leads Bad and George down and towards the warrior home. As they run, they can hear yelling and the Wither's screech echo off of the buildings.

Dream runs ahead and bursts into the home. Once George and Bad are inside, he slams it shut. Behind the curtains if one bunk, he hears Sapnap whisper, "Damn. Gotta go." He emerges from behind the curtain shirtless.

Dream throws his sword at him. "Get a shirt on. The Wither is attacking." He tosses George his sword, but stops. "Why are you shirtless?"

Rose comes out from behind the curtain, wrapped up in a blanket. "I'll meet you guys out there."

"WOAH!" Bad says, covering his eyes. "I did NOT need to see that."

Sapnap slips into his shirt while Rose runs off to the bathroom. As soon as the door clicks behind her, Bad uncovers his eyes and grabs his sword.

"The Wither is here?" Sapnap asks, trying to take attention away from what his friends just saw.

"Yeah! And to make matters worse, arrows won't hurt it!" George shouts. "Let's just hope I'm good enough with a sword for this."

Dream kisses him on the cheek. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. And I've got your back."

Sapnap stares at them for a second. "Remind me to ask what the hell happened between you two when we're done."

Bad opens the door up to chaos. Alyssa is guiding everyone out of the village while Zelk and Mega try to fight off the flying monster. It was picking up chunks of land and throwing it at the two. Had it not been for their shields, they would've died long ago.

"What's the plan?" Bad asks.

Dream looks at his surroundings. The Wither was too far off the ground to hit it and bows were no use. He remembered seeing Alyssa and Zelk go to the roof earlier which gave him an idea. The Wither was right by the roof of a building not too far from the warrior home. "Bad, you and George stay down here and keep that thing distracted while Sapnap and I jump roofs to get over there!" He points to the building by the Wither.

Bad nods and pulls George with him. "Don't die!" George yells as Bad leads him away.

Dream smiles at him before running back inside of the home. Inside, Rose was putting on some leather armor. "Hey, Dream! Put your iron chest plate on dude!" He looks down and realizes that he had no protection. He slides his chest plate on and heads up to the roof, Sapnap close behind him. Rose takes off out the front door to meet everyone on the ground.

When they reach the roof, they hear the sounds of their friends yelling orders to each other below. Dream gets up and stands on the edge of the roof. It was a good six foot gap between where he was and the next roof. Sapnap pulls himself up and realizes what Dream is about to make him do.

He looks over the edge and becomes nauseous. They were high enough up that the could get badly hurt if they fell. "I don't know about this Dream."

"We can make it," Dream reassures him. "We just need a running start." Dream backs up, then sprints full speed, jumping right as he ran out of room for his feet. He feels himself fall for a second, but manages to jump into the next rooftop. "Come on, Nick! I'll catch you!"

Sapnap follows Dreams lead and gives himself a running start. But right as he prepared to jump, his foot slips off of the side of the roof. He pushes off as hard as he can and manages to grab onto the edge of the next roof. Dream pulls him up and Sapnap lays on the ground, catching his breath for a moment.

"Come on, you can do it," Dream encourages. "Just one more!" Sapnap nods as he stands up, shaking from nearly falling not ten seconds earlier. Dream runs and jumps the gap between the two roofs, this gap being shorter than the last. Sapnap manages to jump without falling this time. Dream looks to where the Wither is. It was so close to him that he could smell it. The smell of burnt flesh takes over his nose, making him gag. Sapnap quietly makes his way to the creature, but finds it is still too far away to fight.

"Dream, what do we do? We can't just yell to get it's attention, it'll kill us!" Sapnap looks at the monster, horrified.

"I have an idea," Dream says. "But you're got going to like it." Dream closes his eyes tightly, not thinking his plan all the way through. He then starts running at the Wither, his sword held over his head. He launches himself off of the roof and dives his sword into the creature, pushing it down with him as gravity pulls him to the ground. He lands on top of the Wither, sending shockwaves of pain into his body. He digs his sword further into the thing's body, feeling sand being displaced beneath him. He screams in agony as his hands and arms start turning grey. Before he knows it, he's pulled off of the Wither. He watches as the Wither absorbes his sword and floats up into the sky, retreating towards the forest it decimated earlier.

His sight starts getting fuzzy as he feels multiple pairs of hands touching him.

"Dream! Stay with me!" He hears George yell.

"Mega! Hurry!" Rose shouts beside him.

The next thing he knows, George is tilting his head back while Mega nearly drowns him with a bucket of milk. Dream coughs as he immediately feels better. His eyesight returns to normal, allowing him to see George crouched over him, worried. 

Dream cracks a smile. "We need to stop meeting like this."

George smiles through the pain and he wraps his arms around Dream. "Stop scaring me like that!" George jumps back, looking at his tank top now wet and stuck to his chest. "Gross."

"Mega, you didn't have to empty the entire milk bucket on him!" Rose yells. Mega only replies with an innocent shrug.

Sapnap comes running out of the warrior house. "What just happened?"

"Well, milk helps with potion effects," Zelk explains. "We use it all the time when the Husks attack. We figured we'd try it with him."

"It's a good thing it worked. I would've been pissed if someone wasted all of our milk for nothing," Rose states, looking straight at Mega.

"So, milk equals cure?" Bad asks. "Good to know."

George holds Dream's hand up as he watches the grey disappear into thin air. "How do you feel?"

Dream shrugs. "Same as I did before I attacked it. It's like nothing happened."

George stands up and pulls Dream up with him. "I'm glad you're alright. That would've been awful if I lost you."

"I KNEW I was forgetting something!" Sapnap blurts out. "When did this happen?" He points at Dream and George, still holding hands.

"Probably around the same time that happened!" George points to Rose and Sapnap, who both blush.

"Hey Zelk, can you take watch with Mega? Holler if that thing comes back," Rose directs just as Alyssa walks up with the townspeople following her.

"Nice work you guys," Alyssa states, looking around. "Minimal damage was done. Our builders can have it fixed by tomorrow."

"Well, I'm exhausted!" Sapnap says. "Let's get some sleep so we can go logging tomorrow, shall we?"

Dream found himself struggling to sleep that night. From kissing George to his first real fight against the Wither, his adrenaline wouldn't stop pumping. The next morning, he felt especially tired. The beds had been surprisingly comfortable, but it wasn't enough to help him sleep.

He rubs his eyes as he sits up in his bed. He opens the curtain just as Mega falls into his bunk. Dream was thankful that the Wither never came back. He felt drained as it was. He just wanted a break day.

Dream makes his way down the top bunk of the bed and peeks into the bottom bunk. George was still fast asleep, Cat curled up on his chest. Dream looked at his face, thinking he looked so adorable. He even looked like he had a small smile.

"Are you going to fill me in on you two?" Sapnap asks from behind Dream, startling him. He was sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in his hands. "You guys go from being friends to you kissing him on the cheek in a matter of minutes."

"I like him, Sapnap. A lot. And he likes me back. We talked about it last night and we kissed. There's not much else to say about it." Dream takes a seat at the table. "We aren't dating or anything. Just two guys who want to give a relationship a shot. Now, tell me about you and Rose."

"I think you saw enough last night to know what we were doing while you two were having your moment." Sapnap was right. They didn't really leave much to the imagination. "We're leaving in an hour to go get wood. Wake up your boyfriend, will you?"

Dream smiled. He didn't want to correct Sapnap. George was finally his. He opens George's curtains and gently says, "George? It's time to get up."

George's eyes flutter open and he smiles. "Good morning, Clay." Cat rubs against his arm before jumping off of the bed. George follows the cat, stretching before standing. As soon as his eyes fall on Sapnap, he tenses up. While things were going alright between them, he still felt weird about liking Dream around him. Sapnap always had this expression that made him think he was judging you, even if he wasn't.

George and Dream sit across from Sapnap as they eat their breakfast. George slowly wraps his hand around Dream's while they eat and, by the time they are done, their fingers were laced together tightly as Dream runs his thumb over George's knuckles. The three didn't talk much during their meal. They instead shared awkward glances.

Had Bad not entered the place when he did, the three would've died in their own awkwardness. "You guys! Get dressed so we can go make some sticks!"

After getting dressed and a long walk, the four guys and Rose finally make it to the dark oak forest. "Alright, you guys start cutting some trees down. If saplings fall, replant them. And be on the lookout for pillagers. If you see one, quickly walk in the other direction or climb a tree and hide until they leave," Rose explains. "You should spread out so that we don't just go and deforest the area. Any questions?" None of the boys answer. "Alright, get to chopping!"

Dream decides to follow a thin dirt path on the ground that led him into an area where there were a lot of trees close together. This area was significantly cooler than the desert, but not enough for Dream to wear his hoodie. He hangs it on a tree and gets to cutting wood.

The day was quite peaceful. Dream enjoyed hearing the birds sing around him. It gave him some time to reflect on everything that had happened so far. He fell in love, had a fight with the Wither, and nearly died multiple times, all within the span of a week. He couldn't believe how much he's done and how far away from home he was. He was truly thankful he had three people blindly follow him into the woods that day.

But then, another thought entered his mind as he heard footsteps behind him, accompanied by the sounds of crossbows being loaded.

Why wasn't I watching for pillagers?

———

Word Count: 2868

Published: July 4th


	10. Voluntary Exile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

"Stay where you are," a gravely voice whispers into Dream's ear. "Yell for help and I'll kill you right here." The person behind Dream yanks his iron ax out of his hands. "Do everything I say and maybe we won't kill you."

"We?" Dream echos. His scans the area with his eyes and notices multiple people in dark clothing, walking towards him with crossbows and axes.

"Put your hands behind your back. Slowly. No sudden movements." Dream does what he's told and slowly places his hands behind him. Had it just been him and the man behind him, he would've been able to win a fight easily. But right now, he was surrounded. Even if he had his friends with him, there's no way they'd win. The man behind him tightly ties his hands together with a super scratchy rope of some sort. Every time Dream just barely moved his hands, he could feel the rope dig into his skin.

In the corner of his eye, he could just barely see George behind a tree. He looked more scared than Dream had ever seen him before, but then he remembered the story Bad told him about Zak. Suddenly, Dream felt the same terror George did. His stomach was beginning to turn with uncertainty. He watched George shakily load an arrow into his bow and aim it, but Sapnap grabs him from behind and pulls him into the tall grass.

George struggled against Sapnap, trying to get his arms free. "Stop!" Sapnap whispers. "We can't take them! Let's go get help!"

"We don't have time!" George says, still fighting against Sapnap. He manages to get his arms free and pulls his bow string back.

"I'm sorry, George," Sapnap whispers before punching him right where the trident hit him. Sapnap places a hand over George's mouth right as he yelps in pain. Sapnap lays George in the ground and holds him down. He looks back at Dream and sees him watching them. He mouths thank you as the pillagers begin pushing him onto a dirt path between the trees. George tries to get away from Sapnap, but the horrible pain in his arm keeps him from being able to use that arm.

As soon as the pillagers are out of sight, Sapnap lets go of George. George punches Sapnap in the face, hard enough to leave a large red mark. "What the FUCK Sapnap?!" He yells. He picks up his bow and starts heading in the direction that the pillagers went.

"George, stop!" Sapnap yells out.

George stops and turns around. "Dream is on his way to his death. I'm not going to let them kill him."

"And what are you going to do?" Sapnap asks. "There were almost 20 of them!"

"Well, I was going to shoot them down, but you just had to go and fuck up my arm!" Sapnap looks at George's wrappings, noticing a fresh blood spot on the once clean white bandages.

A wave of guilt washes over Sapnap. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to hurt you."

"What were you trying to do then?!"

"I was trying to keep you from killing yourself!" Sapnap yells. He walks towards George. "George, injured or not, you wouldn't have made it out of there alive and you would've gotten Dream killed as well." He gets close enough to see tears falling from George's eyes. "Let's regroup before we go after him. Maybe Rose will be able to help?"

"What is going ON?!" Bad yells, walking towards them. "One second, you guys are peacefully chopping wood. The next, you two are screaming at each other!"

"Pillagers got Dream and Sapnap stopped me from helping him," George responds.

Bad freezes in fear. "Not again," he mumbles.

"Ok, guys, how about this," Sapnap says. "I'll follow them and figure out where they are taking him. As soon as they get to wherever they are going, I'll come back and tell you what I saw. We can figure out what to do after that."

"I'm going with you," George states. "You may need help."

"No way," Bad says, noticing the blood starting to drip down his arm. "I need to fix whatever happened there."

George looks mad as he marches to Bad. Before the two walk away, he tells Sapnap, "Don't die, ok? I can't loose two people on the same day." Sapnap doesn't respond as Bad guides George away. He looks to the dirt path, takes a deep breath, and begins walking.

Dream was so thankful that Sapnap was there to keep George hidden. Had the pillagers seen George, they both could've ended up dead. He'd much rather die know George is alright than watch in terror as George gets shot down with crossbows. The walk from his spot in the forest to the destination was quite short, which terrified him. If his friends weren't out of the forest yet, they could be at risk of getting captured too. The trees opened up to a small clearing that had a wooden tower in the middle of it. Around it we're small cages made from iron bars and dark oak wood, each with an iron door. The pillagers walk Dream over to one cage that had no one else in it. They toss him in and lock the iron door with a lever that they took with them when they walked away.

Dream got to work trying to find a way out. The iron door had a keyhole that the pillagers didn't appear to use. He tried to look inside of it, but he couldn't see a thing. The only other things in the cage was a notebook, a pen, and a turquoise hoodie with a weird face on the hood. Dream opened up the notebook and only found three pages filled with short, vertical lines. Nothing else. He closed the notebook and places it back on the ground. Dream then decided to inspect the hoodie. It was too small for Dream and reminded him of the size of George's jacket. The fabric was thick and was warm from sitting outside in the sun. He folds it up and puts it back in its place, figuring that he could squeeze into it if he ever got cold.

There were multiple other cages, but None of them held any living things. They appeared to just be used as storage or something for the pillagers. The tower in front of him was multiple stories tall. Maybe four or five? Dream couldn't tell from the angle he was at.

A light tap in the bars pulls his attention from the tower. Sapnap was crouched beside the cage. "Hey!" He whispers.

"Sapnap!" Dream felt a little better knowing he wasn't going to be left for dead. "What are you doing here?"

"Scouting the place out. As soon as I have an idea of what's going on here, I'm reporting it back to the guys so we can make a plan to rescue you." He crawls to the side of the cage that the iron door is on. "How did they put you in here?"

"They used a lever," Dream explains, "But they took it with them when they left."

Sapnap gives a nervous look. "Great. So all we have to do is steal one off of them. Can't be that hard, right?" He looks towards the tower. "Any idea how many are in there?"

Dream shakes his head. "There were at least 15 when I was taken and there were more in the tower already."

"Ok. We'll just make this a stealth mission then," Sapnap decides. "We won't make this a fight. Just get in, get you, get out."

"Sounds like a plan," Dream says.

Sapnap smiles weakly at Dream. "We'll get you out of here. I promise."

Dream nods. "I know. Now go before they see you." Sapnap reluctantly nods and rubs back into the forest he came from. All was quiet for a little bit, but the peace didn't last too long.

"NONONO PLEASE!" Dream heard a voice call from the top of the tower. "NOT AGAIN! PLEASE!!!!" The voice was higher pitched and desperate. The voice had to have belonged to a young man. Maybe a teenager? Dream then heard bottles breaking are dark red particles spread from the top of the tower, followed by an awful, blood curdling scream that sent a shiver down Dream's spine, the reality of his situation hitting him harder as every second passed.

Shortly after hearing the scream, he sees two pillagers coming towards Dream's cage, dragging a man behind them. The man was malnourished and small. His thick black hair hung in his face. The pillagers opened up the door to Dream's cage and tossed the man in like he was a rag doll. Then they slammed the door closed and walked away without a single word.

Dream knelt down to the man on the ground. He was unconscious. He was breathing, but not very strong. He was on his way to death's door. Dream started to freak out. He was trapped in a cage with a dying man without a way to help him. But just before he can go into a full on panic, the man gasps for air and sits up. He leans on his hands as he starts coughing. He sounded like he was about to cough up a lung. He turns his head to the notebook and pen and reaches for it. He shakily opens it up and draws a small line on one of the pages.

"Are you ok?" Dream asks, startling the man. He looks at Dream with a mixture of emotions in his big brown eyes. Dream searched his face, trying to figure out how old the guy was. There was no way he was older than Sapnap. Maybe he was 17? 18?

"Am I ok? No. But I'm not dead, so there's that." He pulls himself up using the bars of the cage. His knees were weak and he would've fallen over had Dream not caught him. His whole body was frail and Dream worried that if he held him too tight, he'd crumble. The man didn't say anything, but gave a look of thanks to Dream.

"What happened to you?" Dream asks.

Dream could see the pain in the man's eyes as he spoke, "They keep killing me."

"But, you're alive?" Dream asks, confused.

The man pushes away from Dream and staggers towards the hoodie in the corner. "Everyday, those demons in there kill me, then use one of those weird statue things on me to bring me to life." He slides his arms into his hoodie and leaves it unzipped. He sighs. "280." Dream looks at the book on the ground and it clicks. They weren't just lines. They were tally marks. "I've lived here 280 days. I've died 280 times." He runs a hand over the tallies. "And I've tried 280 escapes. It never ends."

"My friends are coming for me. We can both get out of here," Dream says confidently.

Dream sees that the man's deep brown eyes now had light behind them. Like he just reignited a spark of hope that burned out long ago. "You mean it?" The man asks. Dream nods. The man looks down, now more sad than before.

"What's wrong?" Dream asks.

The man takes a shallow breath. "I don't know how to get home. It's been so long that I don't even know which way to go anymore."

"You know what? My friend Sapnap has been mapping out our travel path. You're welcome to look them over and see if your hime is in there. We passed by a few villages on our way here."

"That's be amazing!" The man says, the ends of his mouth curling into a smile. "Why have you guys been traveling?"

"Do you know what the Wither is?" Dream asks.

The man nods. "I was there when it was made in the nether. That was death 276. What about it?"

"My friends and I are going to kill it," Dream says.

The man looks up at Dream with a mischievous smile. "I'm in."

Dream tilts his head. "You're in?"

The man nods. "I'm ready to get revenge on that asshole for doing this to me. I'm not going to let him hurt anyone else. I'll help in any way I can."

Dream smiles, missing the part where the man said that asshole. He looks towards the tower. "Do you know how many are in there?"

The man shrugs. "It's hard to tell. New pillagers are constantly coming and going. I lost track of who's who a long time ago."

"Ok. Just wondering."

The man offers his hand out to Dream. "I don't think I know you're name."

Dream smiles and shakes his hand. "I'm Dream."

The man smiles back and introduces himself. "I'm Skeppy."

George groans in pain and Bad fixes his stitches. When Sapnap hit him earlier, it messed his arm up pretty good. He was having trouble holding still.

"Guys! I found Dream!" Sapnap shouts as he comes closer to the three. "He's alive and in a cage outside of this wooden tower thing. And his cage is right by the edge of the forest. If we can find a way to break him out, we can make it out before being seen."

"I have a feeling that there's an issue with this plan of yours," George skeptically says.

"We'll have to steal a lever from a pillager," Sapnap responds, "So there's that."

Bad ties George's wrappings back on his arm. The blood had soaked through them but Bad didn't have anything else to wrap it with. "Ok, you're done. How does it feel?" Bad asks.

George glares at Sapnap. "It fucking hurts, that's how it feels."

"Language," Bad says quietly.

"George, I'm really sorry. I just didn't know how else to keep you from going after Dream." Sapnap walls closer to him. "I really didn't mean to hurt you."

"Then what did you mean to do, Sapnap?!" George shouts. "Did you think that you could just punch me and that I'd be ok?"

Anger starts bubbling in Sapnap. "Dude, you were going to go after Dream! You could've been killed!"

George gets off of the stump that Bad had him sitting on. "At least I would've died trying to help! You did NOTHING!"

Sapnap balls his fist. "Do not stand there and tell me I did nothing! I SAVED YOUR GODDAMN LIFE!"

"Language!" Bad says a little louder. "Come on guys, let's not loose our heads here." His statement only gets ignored.

George shakes his head. "Don't give me that shit, Nick. You don't care about me! You stopped me because you didn't want to get caught."

"Oh fuck you, George," Sapnap says, full of anger. George throws a punch at him, but Sapnap catches his fist before it collides with his face. Sapnap grabs George and pins him against a tree. "GEORGE STOP! THIS ISN'T HELPING!" Sapnap yells.

George struggles under Sapnap's hold. "Get your hands off of me, asshole."

"Make me!" Sapnap yells.

Two hands grab Sapnap and throw him into the ground. Before he knows it, he has a sword tucked underneath his chin. George found himself in a similar position, still pushed against the tree. Bad had grabbed their swords and had them pointed at them. While he was usually shaky with swords, he was extremely confident.

"YOU TWO MUFFINS NEED TO STOP!" He screams. Both George and Sapnap stare at Bad, trying to figure out if they should be impressed or terrified. "I don't know what is wrong with you two, but you need to stop! How do you think Dream would feel if he saw you two right now?" He watches as both boy's anger fizzle into embarrassment and shame. "I need you two to realize that it doesn't matter if you like each other or not. We are a team!" Bad begins to break down. "I've already lost Zak. I'm not loosing the only other three people that have seen me an actual friend." He lowers the swords. "I'm not asking you to be best friends, but could you do me a favor and just pretend like you are?"

George tightly hugs Bad. "I'm sorry, Bad."

Bad sniffles. "Tell that to Sapnap."

Sapnap joins their hug. "George, I'm sorry."

"Me too, idiot," George whispers.

"Are you guys done with your dick measuring contest now?" Rose asks from behind them. "We need to get going if we're going to save Dream in time."

The three smile at each other as they separate. "Ok, we need to figure out how to get Dream out," Bad says. "Oh yeah! LANGUAGE!" He playfully shouts. Sapnap pulls out his book and begins drawing what he saw while the four of them start to brainstorm a way to get Dream free. After coming up with a coherent plan, they decide that tonight was the night. They were going to get Dream back.

———

Word Count: 2842

Hello again! Hope you are enjoying so far! I don't quite know how many total chapters this book will have, but I think I'm halfway through the story. Please vote if you've enjoyed reading! Thank you!!! 💕💕💕

Published: July 5th


	11. Feeling Ill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

"So then, my friend was like 'Geppy! Stop!' It made us both laugh so hard that we forgot what we were even fighting about." While they were locked away, Skeppy was retelling some of his favorite memories. "I miss Bad."

"You'll see him soon," Dream reassures him.

Skeppy smiles. "I know! The day I was taken, he told me he needed to tell me something. The second I see him, I'm making him tell me what it was. I've been sitting here wondering what was so important for too long."

"Any ideas about what he wanted to tell you?" Dream asks.

Skeppy shrugs. "I have no idea. He was always so hard to read. One second, he would flirt with me, then friendzone me the next. Who knows?"

The door to the tower opens up as two of the pillagers step out. One carried an ax, but the other didn't have any weapons. The unarmed one was especially tall for a girl. She looked so intimidating that she didn't need a weapon to fight. Dream was sure that her stare could turn someone into stone. Skeppy seemed to be scared of her. As soon as he saw them coming towards their cage, he backs into the corner.

"New guy," the woman says. "You're coming with us."

"No!" Skeppy yells. "No don't take him! I'll go back in there. I won't fight back! Please!" His begs started to scare Dream. He had been calm when it was just the two of them, but now that he had to go in, Skeppy was freaking out.

The woman's hands begin to glow blue as weird fairy things appear in the cell. They giggle wickedly and start floating towards Skeppy, who instantly breaks down. While he's distracted, the woman pulls Dream out of the cage. Seeing this as an opportunity, he kicks the woman's shin and takes off running towards the woods. The woman screams as she spawns two more of the blue fairies. The shoot in front of Dream and begin striking him with some sort of magic that made his body shake. He walks backwards as he tries to find a way away, but backs right into the pillager with the ax. He grabs Dream and rests his ax on his neck. If Dream moved an inch, the pillager would've slit his throat.

The woman claps. "You really are brave, aren't you?" She looks to the other pillager. "Take him inside." All of weird fairies disappear and, by the time Skeppy realizes they're gone, Dream was already on his way to mee the same fate he had to deal with every day.

The inside of the tower was nothing fancy. Practically everything was made out of some sort of wood. The whole place was crawling with pillagers that taunted him as he walked by. He gets pushed all the way to the top of the tower where there were fences instead of walls. In the middle of the top floor, there was a table with chains on it. The edges were crusted with dried blood and towards the bottom on the table was a drain that had liquid of all colors seeping into it. Around the table was three pillagers. Two with crossbows and one with an ax. The pillager that had taken Dream up to the top floor left as the woman from before enters behind him.

"Here's how this is gonna go," the woman starts, "You're gonna lay on that table and obey everything we say and we will revive you."

"And if I don't?" Dream asks.

"You die," the woman says. She motions to the table.

Dream sits into the table and swings his legs up. He carefully lays down as the pillagers approach the table holding glass bottles of dark purple liquid.

The woman grabs a notebook from the side of the table and opens it up to a page. "Ok, decay test two. During the previous test, it took a minute for the subject to die. Let's see if we can speed that up." She pulls out a golden statue and places it in Dream's hands. "If you want to live, don't let go." She nods to signal to the pillagers to start. They hold their potions over their heads, ready to shatter the glass on Dream. Dream's eyes dart around and land on an ax in one of the pillager's belts. The pillagers release the potions from their hands, but Dream rolls off of the table and onto the ground. He grabs the ax from the pillager and prepares himself to fight.

Dream tightly holds the statue in his left hand and the ax in his right. He swings the ax at the pillager he took it from, making him stumble backwards and onto the table now soaked with the purple liquid. His skin absorbes the liquid, making his skin turn grey. Dream was thankful he moved out of the way. The potion would've withered him. As the man screams in pain, Dream blocks an incoming attack from one of the pillagers with a crossbow. He holds the ax up just in time for the arrow to bounce off of the blade and straight back into the pillager who shot it. Another arrow flies towards him, but he turns his body to the side, allowing it to fly by. As the pillager loads another arrow, he charges at him and swings his ax down, striking the pillager in the shoulder. He pulls the ax out and hits him again in the head. The woman wraps her arm around Dream's neck and pulls him back. He drops the ax and the statue and claws at her arm as she pulls him closer to the fences, ready to throw him off of the top story.

Skeppy sits in the cage, hoping that Dream wasn't hurting too bad. It was his first friend he'd had in months and it would've killed him if he lost that friend so soon. A sound from the top of his cage startles him. He looks up and sees a man with a white bandana on, crawling to the side that the door is on.

The man jumps down. "Ok, Dream. Let's see if I can get rid of this door." He looks up. "Oh shit, you're not Dream."

Skeppy shakes his head. "The pillagers took him up the tower to kill him. Their going to use a totem of undying on him." Sapnap pulls out an iron pickaxe and hits the door once, making a loud clanging noise. Skeppy shushes him. "You won't be able to break through quietly. You need a lever."

"Damn it!" Sapnap looks at the tower. "Ok, I'm going to try to help you, but I need to talk to my team. I'll be right back."

Sapnap stalks back over to the spot Bad and George are hiding at. George had his bow drawn and aimed at the door while Bad watched the woods around them for any movement. George lowers his bow once he sees Sapnap approach.

"Ok, I've got bad news and really bad news," Sapnap says. "Bad news is I can't break the door open without making a lot of noise. The really bad news is Dream is in the tower."

"Well, screw the door, let's rush the tower!" George decides.

George stands, but Sapnap pulls him back down. "There's a guy in the cage that Dream was in. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't break him out." Sapnap hands Bad his pickaxe. "You need to get that guy out while George and I storm the tower. Hopefully Rose will be back soon with some help."

"What if something happens to you two?" Bad asks.

Sapnap hands his map book to Bad. "Then you run as fast as you can back to the desert village without us."

Suddenly, the three hear commotion coming from the top of the tower. They look up and can hear some yelps of pain. After a moment, they see Dream up against the fence being choked by a woman in black leather armor. He was trying to get away, but because of the angle she held him at, he couldn't break free. George aims his bow for the woman and shoots an arrow into the arm around Dream's neck. She lets go and screams in pain. Dream takes advantage of the distraction and pushes her off the tower, making her fall to her death. Dream looks over the side and awkwardly waves at his friends below.

"Bad, you need to go get that guy now! I'm pretty sure we lost our cover," Sapnap says, watching a few pillagers come out of the door. Bad nods and takes off to the cage while Sapnap draws his sword.

"Do you think Dream will be ok?" George asks as he readies an arrow.

Sapnap nods. "That idiot always manages to survive. He'll figure something out."

Bad ran as quick as he could, hoping to free the pour soul still in the cage. He bangs in the door with his pickaxe until it finally falls down. Bad jumps inside and says, "Ok, come with me. Let's get you out of here."

"Hi, Darryl," Skeppy says, barely able to contain his excitement. After comparing stories, Dream realized that Skeppy was this 'Zak' that he had heard about before. After sharing this with him, Skeppy's heart jumped whenever he thought about seeing Bad again.

Bad stares at Skeppy, not believing his own eyes. He takes his glasses off and cleans then, but puts them back on to find that it's all real. "Zak!" Bad pulls him into a hug as he starts to explode with happiness. "ZAK! Oh my goodness! You muffin! You're alive!"

"We need to do this later," Skeppy says, removing Bad's hands from his body. "We need to get out of here!"

Dream picks the iron ax on the ground just in time to fight off a pillager that entered the top floor. He swings at the pillager, but she blocks him with her own ax blade. She pushes his ax away and swings her weapon above her head to prepare to strike. Dream dodges as the ax flies down, getting stuck in the table beside him. He kicks her away from the ax and down the stairs she came from. He closes the trapdoor and drags the table on top of it to keep it from moving. Below him, he could see a large group of them walking towards Sapnap and George. He grabs one of the crossbows on the ground and gathers all the arrows off of the dead bodies around him. Only seven. He had to make them count.

Dream aims for the pillager closest to his friends. He fires and hits the guy in the back. He watches as the pillager cries out in pain and becomes grey. Dream inspects the arrows and sees that they are the same grey color that his skin turned when he was withered. The pillagers had somehow managed to recreate the withering effect and place it into arrow form. He looks down and realizes that all of the pillagers were armed with the same arrows.

"THE ARROWS WITHER YOU!" Dream yells down to his friends. "DON'T GET HIT!" Both Sapnap and George nod in understanding just as the trapdoor behind Dream bursts open.

Three pillagers come at him, each holding axes. The first pillager tried to yank the crossbow out of Dream's hands, but Dream pulls the trigger, sending an arrow through the pillager's chest. As the pillager falls, it pulls the crossbow completely out of Dream's hands. Dream reaches for his ax in the ground, but a second pillager pulls him back and tries to slit his throat. Dream pushes the pillager's arm as he feels a pain in the side of his neck. It managed to cut Dream's neck, but not enough to be lethal. He presses his left hand to the wound as it becomes sticky with blood. The pillager swings the now bloody ax towards Dream, but Dream catches his arm with his right hand and kicks him in the stomach. Dream takes his hand off of his neck as he picks up the bloody ax, prepared to fight the third pillager.

The third pillager drops his ax as his hands glow with the same blue light that the woman's hands did earlier. Two of the blue fairies appear beside him, laughing as they charge for Dream. Dream raises his ax over his left shoulder and swings down, killing one of the blue fairies. The second one pulls his hair and drags him back to the edge of the fence. He hits it twice with the ax, making it vanish just as fast as it appeared. The pillager charges towards Dream to push him off of the tower. Dream pushes him to the ground, but the pillager grabs his red stained shirt collar and pulls him down with him. The pillager rolls Dream onto his back and yanks the ax out of his hands. The pillager laughs as he raises the ax above Dream's head. But just as he'd about to swing down, an arrow flies through the air and lands in the pillager's face. He flies back, dead. Dream sits up and looks to where the arrow was shot from. Right in eyesight was George, standing on one of the cages lowering his bow. Dream gets back up and grabs the ax, ready to head back down. Before leaving, he shoves the golden statue into his back pocket.

The floors of the towers were empty. The pillagers had either gone outside to fight his friends or flee in terror. Dream makes it to the bottom floor and sees that George had helped an injured Sapnap up onto the cage he was standing on before. Sapnap was struggling to keep his balance while he held his hand against his eye that appeared to be bruising and swollen. Skeppy and Bad were on the cage to their left. Bad had his sword, but Skeppy wasn't armed. If Dream wanted any hope at saving them, he'd have to think fast. That's when he noticed a flint and steel hanging by a fireplace back in the tower. He grabbed it and started making sparks on the inside of the tower, eventually setting it on fire.

Dream's stunt was enough to get the pillagers to leave the cages. They were more concerned with saving their tower than trying to kill five kids. Dream slips through the door and meets his friends at the cages. Skeppy jumps down first and helps Bad down who still looked like he was dreaming. George lowered Sapnap to the ground and into Dream's arms. Closer up, he looked like he had taken quite the beating. His hair was messy and he definitely had a black eye.

"What happened, Nick?" Dream asks.

Sapnap covers his eye once Dream lets go of him. "One of the idiots hit me with the wrong side of their ax when my head was turned."

"At least you got hit in the face with wood and not a sharp piece of iron," George points out as he jumps down from the cage.

Sapnap shrugs. "I don't know. If the iron out me out of my misery, I think I would've preferred that to this."

George notices something gold on the ground. He picks up the statue and examines it. "What is this?"

"I'm not sure, it must've fallen out of my pocket. I just kinda grabbed it," Dream says. "Just stick it in your bag. We'll figure it out later."

"Guys, we got to go while they are still busy!" Skeppy shouts. George's jaw drops when he sees Skeppy. He was too busy trying to stay alive to realize the other prisoner was Bad's long lost friend.

Bad wraps his hand in Skeppy's. "Look who I found!"

"He's right guys, we need to-" Sapnap starts, but is interrupted when George shoves him to the ground. "What the hell, George?" He looks up.

Sticking out of George's arm was an arrow. He shoots an arrow at the pillager that shot him, killing him instantly. "Let's go," he says, walking into the forest. He yanks the arrow out of his arm, letting a stream of blood pour out of his arm.

Dream helps Sapnap up, then jogs to catch up with George. "Are you ok?"

George doesn't look at Dream. "I'm fine."

Dream grabs his hand, but George recoils like he touched something hot. He winces in pain. Dream then notices that his arm is turning grey. George stops walking and leans against a tree.

"You're withered!" Dream says, sadness filling his voice.

"We have to keep moving," George says in response. George takes a step away from the tree, but collapses.

Dream helps him back up. "Guys! George is withered!" He calls to his friends, who quickly pick up their pace. "Let's get somewhere safe so we can figure out what to do." He takes a few steps with George wrapped around him, but George's legs give out from under him.

He grabs his sides and groans, "I can't walk. It hurts. Everything hurts."

Dream picks George up and says, "I've got you." Had George not been covered in the blood on Dream's shirt, he would've felt safe and happy in Dream's arms.

They didn't make it far before Dream wasn't able to carry him anymore. The fight had left him feeling exhausted and, though George was light, his arms were burning.

"Guys, I need to stop," Dream says, gently leaning George up against a boulder. His body had already mostly decayed and he wasn't able to move much on his own. "Do you need anything?" Dream asks George. "Water? Food?"

"I need you to leave me," George says.

Dream shakes his head. "Now isn't the time for jokes, George."

"I'm not joking, Dream."

Sapnap kneels down beside George and attempts to pick him up. "I'll carry you the rest of the way. We can get you some milk. It'll be fine!"

George begins to cry in pain as Sapnap tries to move him. "Nick, stop!" He yells. Sapnap backs off. "Im not going to make it. You guys have to keep going. The sun is starting to set. You need to get back before the monsters come."

Dream shakes his head. "No, I'm not leaving you. I promised I'd get you home and that's what I'm going to do!"

George weakly takes his hand. "Dream, listen to me. You have to go kill the wither before it's too late."

"IM NOT LEAVING YOU!" Dream yells. He starts crying. "Please don't make me, George. I can't do this. Not without you."

George rubs his thumb over Dream's knuckles. "You know, Clay? That day I followed you out here wasn't because of Bad telling me to or because I wanted to help you. It was because I thought you were cute."

"George, stop it," Dream pleads.

The grey makes its way up his neck and begins surrounding his face. "That was the day I realized I can't live without you. I knew that you were the only person in the world that could make me happy. I don't regret anything that happened because I can die knowing that I'm the luckiest man in the world." A lone tear streams down his face. "Don't die, ok?"

Dream gently wraps his arms around George, desperately holding onto him. George hugs him back, but his grip gets lighter with every second. Dream closes his eyes and kisses him. But his heart shatters when George doesn't return the kiss.

He was gone.

———

Word Count: 3296

Please don't kill me. Remember that everything happens for a reason. I love y'all!

Published: July 6th


	12. Postmortal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Sapnap ended up having to drag Dream away from George's body. Dream didn't want to let go, but Sapnap knew how dangerous a dark forest would get at night. With Skeppy's help, he was eventually able to pry his hands off of George. Dream, of course, kicked and screamed. But he was tired and eventually let go.

Sapnap started leading Dream back towards the village, but stopped when he noticed Bad and Skeppy not following him. "Guys, it's almost dark. We need to go."

"Just give him some time," Skeppy pleads. "Trust me, he needs it."

"I'm not leaving you two to die too," Sapnap says.

Skeppy walks up to him and pulls his sword out of its holster while staring straight into Sapnap's eyes. "We'll be fine."

"Dude, you look like you're going to fall over and die any second," Sapnap says.

"Don't test me," Skeppy warns. "Give me a few days and I'll be one of the most dangerous people you've met."

Sapnap rolls his eyes. "Fine. Just make sure you get Bad home without a single scratch." Sapnap walks away with Dream still weeping in his arms.

Skeppy lays the sword down on a stump and rubs Bad's shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Guilty," Bad states.

Skeppy gives him a weird look. "Why?"

"Don't get me wrong, I loved George like a brother. He was there for me when you left and I'm crushed he's gone. But a part of me is... happy, I guess? You know, because I've got you back." Bad looks down. "There's something wrong with me."

Skeppy wraps his arms around Bad and lays his head against his shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with you. There's no set way that you should be feeling right now. It's ok to be confused."

"I need some flowers. I know we will give him a proper send off tomorrow in the daytime, but I'd feel awful if I just left him like that." Bad looks around and finds a small flower patch. He runs over and picks as many flower as he can, blinking away tears as he goes. Once he has a bundle of blue cornflowers and white daisies, he spreads them gently around George. As he steps back to see how his flower arrangement looks, he feels a raindrop got his nose.

Skeppy grabs his hand. "Darryl, I think it's time we head back."

Bad sadly nods. "Thank you. For staying with me. It means a lot." Skeppy only squeezes his hand in response as they walk away from George, his backpack, and the beautiful flowers around him.

Sapnap and George finally make it to the start of the desert when they can see Rose and Mega running towards them. When Rose reaches them, she asks, "Where is everyone?"

"Bad and a guy we rescued stayed back for a few minutes. They should be coming behind us any minute," Sapnap responds, letting Dream go. Dream starts walking towards the village without another word.

"What about George?" Rose asks. Sapnap doesn't respond. He clenches his jaw and closes his eyes tightly to keep himself from crying. Rose instantly understands his silence. She pulls him into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Nick," she whispers. Sapnap buries his face into her hair in an attempt to hide the tears starting to fall from his face. But once his shoulders shuddered as he cried, he knew there was no use in hiding it.

He pulls Rose in tighter. "It should've been me. George died because of me. He pushed me out of the way of an arrow and it hit him instead."

Bad and Skeppy make it out of the forest and into the sand, a little wet from the rain. The canopy of leaves above them had helped a lot, but they still ended up wetter than they wanted to be.

Mega leads the group back towards the village. In the distance, he could see Dream struggling to walk, constantly stopping to wipe his eyes. Honestly, Mega had been intimidated by him at first. He was a big guy who knew his way around his sword. But seeing him broken down completely changed how he saw him. It almost made Mega want to talk to him. Almost.

Everyone manages to make it back to the village just as the monsters started coming out to play. Mega ushers everyone inside before taking his place at the watch tower to kill monsters from above. Upon arriving, Rose asks to speak to Zelk and Alyssa alone to catch them up on the guys' situation.

Dream falls into George's bed, desperately hugging the blanket that still smelt like him. Cat jumps onto the bed next to him and curls up by his leg. Sapnap and Bad both sit at the table while Skeppy looks at the bed awkwardly. It was the first time he had seen a bed in what felt like forever and was excited to have a decent night's sleep.

Sapnap watches as Dream cries into the blanket, feeling hopeless. He was never good at comforting people, especially when he was feeling the same pain.

He gets up and walks over to Dream. "Hey, you should probably get changed and cleaned. I can't tell if your shirt has your blood or someone else's on it."

Dream wipes his nose and looks at Sapnap with puffy eyes. "I don't have anything to change into."

"I'm sure Zelk wouldn't mind if you stole a shirt from him," Sapnap says, trying to figure out which bed was Zelk's. "We just have to find his chest." Dream nods and sits up, allowing Sapnap to help him remove the sticky shirt. Sapnap then notices the cut on Dream's neck. "Dude, what happened?"

"It was a pillager thing. Happened mid-fight and stopped bleeding on out way here. It doesn't hurt anymore." Dream wraps himself up in the blanket as Sapnap leaves to fetch him a shirt. He then realizes something. "Shit! I left my hoodie in the forest!" He pulls the blanket over his face and he yells muffled profanities.

Sapnap eventually finds a Zelk's chest and brings Dream one of the plain black shirts from inside. "We can go find it tomorrow. It'll be ok."

Dream sadly nods as he slips into the shirt. "I know you don't like to talk about these things, but how are you feeling?"

Sapnap looses himself in thought. "I feel awful. I was nothing but rude to George and he took an arrow for me. He gave his life for me. I didn't deserve that." He sits in the bed next to Dream. "I don't even know why I treated him like I did. Maybe it was because I was jealous or something? I don't know, but whatever it was, it got in the way of what could've been a great friendship."

Dream leans on Sapnap's shoulder. "That's just who he was. He put himself at risk to help everyone else. I can count at least four times that he's kept me from dying."

Sapnap smiles fondly. "Well, he was just as much of an idiot as you. You run into danger and he just follows after you."

Rose opens the front door and walks in quietly. "Hey there. I just wanted to let you all know that you have this place to yourselves for the night. The rest of us are staying with our families to give you some space."

"Thank you, Rose," Bad responds.

Rose smiles. "Of course." She starts to leave, but stops in the doorway. "You know, I haven't know George as long as you guys, but after seeing the impact he left on me, I can only imagine the pain you guys are going through. My friends and I want to help give him a proper send off tomorrow. Let me know when you guys go back out and we'll come with you." With that, she leaves them alone in the home.

Skeppy settles on a bottom bunk bed and lays down. He lets out a pleasant sigh as his head sinks into the pillow. He understood why Bad felt guilty. Skeppy felt like he could finally breathe while his new friend's lungs had collapsed on the other side of the room. He still was sad that George had died, but he didn't know him like the others did. He wasn't there for all of the great moments they had together. He felt bad that he couldn't muster up any tears for the fallen hero.

"Hey, can we turn off the lights? They're hurting my eyes," Dream says. Bad nods and hits a lever, turning the red stone lamps off. Bad stumbled through the dark but eventually finds a bed. He tosses himself into it, not caring if it was someone else's bed. He just wanted to sleep forever. Sapnap ended up staying in bed with Dream. Dream was trying to fall asleep, still on his shoulder. Sapnap couldn't sleep. There was no way he was going to sleep with so much in his mind. He'd give anything to see George again and apologize for how he acted. The old saying was right. You never appreciate what you have until it's gone.

Sapnap was right. He didn't sleep at all. When everyone was waking up the next day, he was already up and making a cup of coffee, hoping it'd give him enough energy to get through the day. Bad and Skeppy both roll out of bed at the same time and begin cooking some meat for breakfast. Dream didn't wake up for a long time. It was around midday by the time he got up and, even then, he was a zombie. He must've cried all night because his eyes were still wet and watery. He looked miserable and probably felt even worse.

A little after noon, Rose opens the door. "Hey, are you guys ready to head out?"

The guys don't respond and instead look at Dream, waiting to hear his response. Dream shrugs. "I don't think I'll ever be ready, so let's just get this over with." Rose nods and heads out to collect her friends.

Bad rubs Dream's arm. "Everything's going to be ok. I promise."

Dream gives him a half smile. "Thanks, Bad. I'm glad I've got you."

Bad hugs him. "Me too."

Once everyone is ready, Sapnap leads them to George's resting place, a shovel in his hand.

His hearing was the first to come back. It started out as a weird crackling noise, but slowly returned to the usual wind that greeted him in the morning. It cooled his already cold skin, making him want to shiver, but he couldn't move yet.

Next, it was his smell. The rain that had fallen not to long ago gave the surrounding forest a fresh sent. The sweet berries near his feet were also giving off a lovely aroma.

Then, it was his touch. Under his hands, he could feel the soft grass. A few of the blades had wrapped around his fingers, as if they were holding him to the ground. His back ached, probably because he was leaning against a mossy boulder. His neck hurt the worse. I fell asleep in a really weird position he thought to himself. With all of the strength he had, he twitched his fingers. After a few more seconds of trying, he was able to close his hand into a fist. Soon, he was able to push himself off of the boulder into an upright position.

He gave himself a minute to breathe before trying to move his legs. He winced as he bent one of them, feeling like his leg had fallen asleep. After a minute of trying, he manages to bend his leg all of the way.

He finally decided to open his eyes. He had to squint them at the sight of the Sun. Everything seemed brighter than before. He was suddenly more aware of every ray of light blasting through the trees. He looks down at his hands, which were no longer grey, then back up to the world around him.

He could see.

He could feel.

He could breathe.

He was alive.

Besides the pain in his body, George felt great. Even his arm felt a million times better. He peels back his wrappings and sees that the gashes in his arm was now nothing more than three jagged scars. Slightly below the three scars was a fourth one where he had been hit with an arrow. It was just a small slash with a trail of dried blood under it. George grabs his bag beside him and begins digging around for something to wipe the blood off with, but cuts his fingertip on something sharp. He opens his bag up more and finds that the golden statue had turned black and shattered into small bits and pieces. He carefully moved them aside and pulls out a rag. He pours a little bit of water from his canteen onto it and rubs his arm clean.

George stands up and stretches as he scans the forest around him. In the distance, he sees Dream's hoodie hanging from a tree. Still feeling very cold, he decided to go grab it. George bends down to grab his bow and backpack and smiles at the lovely flowers that were placed around where he laid. He attaches his quiver to his belt and starts heading towards the hoodie.

The hoodie was incredibly warm. Dream must've left it there when he got caught because he didn't have it on at all during the fight. George spins in a circle as he tries to figure out how to get back to the village, but stops when his eyes fall on a skeleton hanging out under a tree. He rolls up the hoodie sleeves and decides to take out the monster. He sneaks over to it, preparing to attack.

Dream noticed how the forest looked so much more threatening after everything that happened. He knew that deep in the trees was a group of deadly people who'd kill anything and everything if they could. Everyone readied their weapons as they stepped into the woods.

"We need to be careful," Rose says. "We don't need another run-in with those pillagers."

"What do you think happened to their tower?" Skeppy asks. "Like, do you think they put the fire out?"

Bad shrugs. "Who knows. I'm definitely not going to go check it out."

"He should be up here," Sapnap says, pointing to the boulder. He stops and shudders. "I don't think I can do this."

"I don't either," Dream agrees, "but we can't just leave him." As they walk closer to the boulder, they hear the clicking of bones. Dream looks forward and sees a skeleton under a tree, drawing its bow as it aims at him. He holds up his sword, ready to hit the arrow before it hits him, but the skeleton suddenly crumbles into a pile of bones with an arrow sticking out of its body. Dream looks in the direction the arrow came from and sees George, lowering his bow. Dream looks to Sapnap to see if he was just imagining it, but based off of his expression, he knew Sapnap saw him too.

George looks up and sees his friends all staring at him. He smiles and begins walking towards them. As he gets closer, he sees Dream start to cry. Dream runs at him and nearly tackled him to the ground.

"GEORGE!" He yells in excitement. "YOU'RE ALIVE! How are you alive?"

George laughs, "I don't know, but I'm not going to question it." He drops his bow and his bag so he can wrap both arms around Dream's neck. When he tossed down his bag, one of the shards of the statue fell out.

Skeppy picks up the shard and examines it. "Holy shit! YOU HAD A TOTEM OF UNDYING!"

"Language!" Bad laughs as he joins Dream and George in the hug. He grabs Skeppy and pulls him into the group hug.

George looks over Dream's shoulder and sees Sapnap standing, looking awkward. "Dude, you want an invitation or something? Get in here!"

Sapnap cracks a smile as he joins the hug, thankful that George was alive.

———

Word Count: 2719

Published: July 7th


	13. Two by Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

"You were the last one to touch it, so it revived you," Zak explains to George as the group walks back to the village, their bags full of wood.

"Why did it take so long for me to wake up?" George asks.

Zak shrugs. "My best guess would be that it's because when you were brought back to life, you were so exhausted that you stayed asleep. It's a good thing Dream dropped it. Had it still been linked to him, you would've stayed dead."

"Well, I don't care how or why George is back," Bad says. "I'm just glad he's here."

All morning, George had been feeling the love from his friends. Even Sapnap had a newfound appreciation for him which kind of freaked him out. George didn't dare complain. He'd rather enjoy the peace while it lasted, however long it may be.

George points at a tree. "I'm going to chop that one down and I'll be good to good." He begins cutting down the tree, but hears a cutting noise from the other side of the trunk. He leans over and sees Sapnap cutting the same tree.

"Sapnap! Go get a different tree!" George says, jokingly.

Sapnap smirks. "I was helping you mine the blocks!"

George rolls his eyes. "No, it doesn't help when we're both mining it!" The two fall into laughter as they collect the wood from the bow fallen tree. George places the wood into his backpack, then catches up to Dream, wrapping his hand into Dream's. Dream had been pretty quiet since George came back. He looked like he had something he wanted to say, but was having trouble finding the words. Had he not seemed as happy as he was right then, George would've pushed him to tell him what's wrong. But in this moment, he was perfectly content just holding his hand.

Everyone except Dream couldn't stop talking the whole way back to the village. George was only gone for a few hours, but it felt like a lifetime to his friends. It warmed George up inside. Once they made it back to the village, Rose and her team got to work guarding the village while the guys focused on making sticks.

"How many emeralds was it for armor?" Sapnap asks.

"25 for each us of except Dream," Bad answers. "He's got a chest plate so he only needs 16."

Skeppy whistles. "That's a lot of emeralds. Are we going to have enough sticks?"

George nods. "We've got plenty! Alright, hand me your sticks and I'll go trade real quick."

As George walks off with arms full of sticks, Bad turns to talk to Dream. "Are you ok? You've been oddly silent."

"I love him," Dream says, "but I don't think I'm ready to tell him."

Bad smiles at him. "I'm so happy for you, Dream! You two warm my heart. You're my favorite couple."

"I thought Skephalo was your favorite couple!" Skeppy says playfully.

Bad blushes. "Real couple, Skeppy."

Skeppy punishes him. "I was only teasing!"

"You should tell him," Sapnap says, to Dream's surprise.

"Not the answer I was expecting from you," Dream states.

Sapnap looks at George. "He's a good guy who only deserves all of the happiness in the world. And you give him that. If that's how you feel, who am I to deny you if that?"

Dream chuckles. "Wow. Who are you and what did you do with the real Sapnap?"

Sapnap laughs. "I'm serious, Dream! If this whole adventure has taught me one thing, it's that we need to live every second like it's our last. We've had too many close calls, especially lately. And it's only going to get harder from here on out." He rubs Dream's arm. "If you're ready, tell him."

"Tell who, what?" George asks, walking up to them with a large bag full of emeralds.

Sapnap smiles. "Tell Zelk that Dream stole a shirt," he lies.

George believes it and hands each the exact amount of emeralds they need to get their armor. George leads the way to the armorer and they quickly make their purchases. They slip their new armor into their bags and make their way back to the large warrior house.

George sets his bag down and begins petting Cat. "I don't think I should take him with us," he says sadly. "I wouldn't be able to keep going if he got hurt."

"Hey George?" Alyssa asks quietly from behind him. "I can take care of him if you want. I'll keep him clean and fed until you can come back."

George smiles at her. "You'd do that for me?"

Alyssa nods. "He'll be safe here with me. I promise."

George hugs her. "Thank you! I promise we'll be back soon!"

"We should probably get going soon," Sapnap says. "The linger we wait, the worse off we will be fighting that thing."

Alyssa sadly smiles. "Hey Mega, come say goodbye. I'll go grab Rose and Zelk."

Mega stirs in his bed and sits up, looking exhausted. He carefully climbs down the tower and begins shaking everyone's hands as a farewell. Once he gets to George, he pulls him into a hug. George smiles as he hugs him back.

Alyssa walks in with Rose and Zelk. Zelk doesn't show much emotion, but Rose looked very upset.

She walks right up to Sapnap and kisses him on the cheek. "This was fun."

Sapnap grabs her hand. "Come with us. Please."

Rose pulls her hand away. "You know I can't do that Nick. This place needs me." She then pulls his bandana off of his head. "This will give you a reason to come back. You know, when you win."

Sapnap kisses her gently. "Don't worry. I'll be sure to come back for my bandana and nothing else."

Rose giggles. "Asshole."

The girls give a tearful goodbye to the group, wishing them luck in their adventure. George slides out of Dream's hoodie and hands it back to him, knowing that his walk through the desert was about to be very hot. Before they leave, George makes sure to say goodbye to Cat, was hen nods sadly, signaling that he was ready to leave.

Leaving the desert village was bittersweet. It had to be done, but everyone had made so many memories there in the few short days they were there for. They all silently agreed that they'd come back as soon as they won against the Wither.

They began following the trail which led them into a plains biome, filled with the flowers. Dream began to notice that the world around them was dying. The dead grass crunches under their feet and animals were becoming much more rare. The only flowers around them were the withered roses, making traveling a bit hard. They were now constantly looking where they were going to avoid getting withered. George nearly stepped on one, but Dream grabes his hand and pulled him back. Neither of them wanted to let go of the other, so they just continued holding hands as they went.

"I want a trident," Skeppy says aloud. "They look cool and I want to look cool."

Bad laughs. "Good luck with that one!"

Skeppy notices a small pond she's do fb them. He runs over to the water and peers over the edge. "There's a drowned one there!" He says excitedly. "Who dares me to go take its trident?"

"Skeppy, no," Bad says.

Skeppy jumps into the water. "I seriously can't believe you're making me do this!" He calls out. The guys all sprint towards the pond, panicking.

"SKEPPY! GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" Bad yells. Skeppy takes a deep breath and sinks into the water. George lets go of Dream's hand and aims an arrow into the water, but calms down once he sees what's happening under the surface. There was only one Drowned and Skeppy was making quick work of killing it. He was a fantastic swimmer, constantly moving around to avoid the Drowned's attacks. He eventually swims up behind the water zombie and pulls its trident against its neck until it finally stops struggling.

Skeppy swims back to the surface, a beautiful blue trident in his hands. "Wow, I can't believe you guys told me to do that! I could've gotten hurt." He smirks at Bad before turning and walking along the wither rose path. He was soaking wet, but he didn't care. He now had a new toy to learn to use.

"Is he always like that?" Sapnap asks.

"You mean cocky, idiotic, reckless, and extremely dangerous?" Bad asks. "Cause yep. That's him."

"We should set up camp soon," Dream says. "The sun is going to set soon."

Everyone nods and, together, the build a makeshift home just in time to see the sun fall in the sky. Sapnap finishes the home off with a door as everyone steps inside. He then goes to place their beds, but stops.

"Do any of you guys have string?" Sapnap asks. No one responds. "Well, we've got four beds. Who's sleeping on the floor?"

"No one has to sleep on the floor," George says. "How about this. Skeppy gets his own bed because he wasn't able to sleep in one for a long time. Out of the four of us, I'm the smallest, so I should have to share with someone. Bad tosses too much in his sleep and I think Sapnap would kill me if I rolled onto his half of the bed. I'll just share with Dream while you two take your own beds.

"That's a real roundabout way of saying you wanted snuggle time!" Skeppy teases.

"Would you like us to build a privacy wall for you two as well?" Sapnap asks, holding back laughter.

George shakes his head. "Come on. We are all adults. Let's act like it, ok?"

Sapnap shrugs as he puts the beds out, making sure to place George and Dream's bed in the corner.

"You're comfortable with sharing, right?" George asks Dream. "It'll only be for the night and we can build a blanket wall if you want."

Dream smiles. "What if I don't want to get my own bed tomorrow?" He walks over to the furnace that Sapnap places against the wall to start cooking dinner, leaving George a blushing mess.

After a simple dinner of bread and fruit, George grabs his notebook and exits the small shack, grabbing Dream's hoodie on his way out. Dream's eyes linger on the door. He wanted to go out with him, but he felt so nervous.

Bad notices this and walks over to him, pulling him to his feet. "Just go, you muffin head! You know you want to!"

"What if he doesn't feel the same way?" Dream asks. "I don't want to ruin anything."

Bad gives him a reassuring smile. "He does, Dream."

"Thank you," Dream says, gathering all of his courage to go talk to George. He steps outside and sees a few monsters out. A creeper was standing near the withered roses while two zombies swam in the pond Skeppy jumped into not too long ago. Dream looks around for a second, then noticed a staircase heading up the side of the house.

Dream climbed to the roof to see George bundled up in Dream's green hoodie, writing in his notebook. George heard the creaking of the ladder as Dream got off of them. He put the book down and smiled at Dream, motioning for him to sit by him. Dream complies and sits next to him.

"What are you writing?" Dream asks.

"It's my final Bad story I'm writing before I give the book to Skeppy. I don't remember a whole lot from the pillager fight, but I remembered just enough to write a coherent story." He writes a final sentence, then signs his name in beautiful cursive at the bottom. "Done!"

"You know, you have really pretty handwriting," Dream says admiring the page.

George looks up at Dream beside him. "Can I draw on your face?"

His question catches Dream off guard. He chokes on his own laugh. "What?"

"Ever since I saw your freckles, I've wanted to connect the dots." George's eyes being to twinkle in the moonlight.

Dream shrugs and says, "Sure weirdo. Draw on my face."

George excitedly pulls out his pen and turns Dream's face slightly to the side. He holds his face steady with his right hand as he starts drawing with his left one. Dream's face begins to burn as he realizes how warm George's hand was on his face. He also noticed how close they were sitting. George's leg was practically in Dream's lap ever since he turned to start drawing.

After a short minute, George releases Dream's face and smiles at his work. "Done!"

"What did you draw?" Dream asks.

George looks away, bashful. "I drew a heart. There was a perfect cluster of freckles under your eye and I thought it'd look cute." He looks at Dream, no longer trying to hide the blush on his face. "I was right."

Though his hand was no longer on Dream, Dream could still feel the warmth George radiated. It sent electricity through him just thinking about it. He reaches up to touch the heart on his right cheek, but George grabs his hand before he can.

"No! Don't touch it! I don't want it to smear. You can wash it off in the morning." George was so focused on protecting his artwork that he didn't notice he had grabbed his hand for a few moments. Dream's palms were sweaty and his hands were shaking. George found it cute. He never thought he'd ever make a cute guy nervous.

"Ok, I won't mess with it," Dream says, snapping George out of his trance. "But don't be too surprised if it smears while I sleep."

"It'll be dry by then," George says, looking back down to their linked hands. Dream begins gently stroking his knuckles, sending shock waves through his whole body. George bites his bottom lip as he grows more and more nervous.

"Dream? I need to ask you something," George says, looking up at Dream. His face was as bright as George's felt.

"What's up?" Dream asks.

"Are things going to change between you and I once we get back home?"

Dream thinks for a moment, then responds. "Yes." George's eyes fill with sadness, making Dream panic. "Wait, no, not in a bad way." He laughs. "George, you and I aren't going to have to feel like we are on the verge of death. We'll be able to actually relax with each other and have a real relationship. So yeah, things will change, but for the better."

George shyly smiles. "Ok, follow up question. Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do!" Dream says without hesitation.

———

If you are uncomfortable reading kissing scenes, please skip to the bolded text below. You will not miss out on any story beats. ;)

———

Without letting go of Dream's hand, George leans close enough to Dream to feel his breath on his face. Dream's breathing hitched as he looked from George's eyes to his lips. He tilts his head down and closes his eyes. He was ready. George closes the gap between them and gently pressed his lips against him. Dream gasps as their lips collide, not initially knowing what to expect. He felt relaxed, even with his heart going a million miles a minute. He didn't dare to open his eyes out of fear that he was dreaming the magical moment. Dream lets go of George's hand and wraps his arms around his waist. George's hands wonder to the back of Dream's neck as he pulls him in closer. He felt safe being in Dream's muscular arms. He let himself forget about the Wither and his death and everything else that would've left him traumatized. He just wanted to live there forever in Dream's arms.

After a few seconds, Dream pulls away and looks at George. "I love you."

George smiles. "I love you too."

"Hey, can we do that thing again?" Dream asks.

George grins. "You're an idiot."

"Just kiss me," Dream pleads before leaning in and kissing George deeper than before. He pulled George onto his lap as his hands wondered up his hoodie, sending shivers down George's spine. George gasps for air, Dream pulls him back in, taking notice of the sweet smell he was desperately trying to place. It was never anything physical. It was George. It was comforting. It was perfect.

"Dream," George whispered as he pulled away. He nestled into Dream's chest as he took some time to catch his breath. Dream cradles him with one hand while twisting brown locks of hair with his other. "Damn, how did I get so lucky?" Dream whispers into George's ear.

———

Ok it's safe now! :D

———

"I'm going to go check on them," Bad says. "They've been out there a while and it's starting to get cold."

Sapnap shrugs. "I'm sure they're alright. They're probably just having one of their weird deep talks or whatever."

Bad quietly opens the door and says, "Guys?" with no response. He then hears a noise on the roof. Expecting it to be a monster, he grabbed the sword from his belt and looked up. Above him, he saw the two boys snuggling together. He didn't need to see it happen to know they shared a moment. He could tell based off of the way the two were glowing. He rushed back inside, his eyes just as wide as his smile.

"Everything ok?" Skeppy asks.

"Yeah," Bad says. "Sapnap was right. They're having a personal moment right now. I say we let them be. They'll come in eventually."

Skeppy climbs into his bed and pulls the blanket over his head to shield his face from the light. Sapnap peels his t-shirt off, leaving him in his long sleeved black shirt.

He laid in bed for a few seconds, then snickered. "Hey Bad? Do you think they're doing steamy stuff up there?"

Bad shrugs. "So what if they are. Just let them have a moment to feel normal for once during all of this."

Skeppy pushes the blanket off of his face. "Wait, so did they actually-"

"No, stop you muffins," Bad says. "We need to respect their privacy."

Skeppy covers himself with the blanket again. "Dude I'd give anything to kiss someone right now. It's been way too long I swear."

"Bad can help you out with that one, Skeppy!" Sapnap jokes from his bed. Bad gasps and chucks his pillow at him while Skeppy giggles from under his blanket.

"Bro! You didn't have to chunk your pillow at me!" Sapnap laughs.

"Chunk?" Bad repeats, sending himself and Skeppy into a fit of laughter.

Sapnap rolls his eyes as he grins. "Whatever, idiots. You guys are the worst!"

The door quietly opens as Dream and George step inside, hands linked together. Sapnap and Skeppy glance at each other as they make their way towards their shared bed. Bad blows out the torch, plunging the room into total darkness.

As Dream laid in the darkness, he could feel one of George's hands wrap around his waist, the other finding its way up to his hair. As he plays with a strand of hair, George whispers, "I love you, Dreamie."

"I love you too." Dream closes his eyes, falling into the deepest sleep he had experienced since this whole crazy adventure started.

———

Word Count: 3252

That was my first time ever writing a kissing scene, so if it didn't flow well or seemed awkward, I've very sorry! 😂

Published: July 8th


	14. We Need to go Deeper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

"Dream," Sapnap whispers as he shakes him awake. "You need to look at this."

Dream opens his eyes, expecting to see bright sunlight coming through the cracks in the door. Instead, he just saw darkness. He squinted his eyes and could barely see Sapnap in front of him. "Dude? How late is it?"

"It's nine only the morning, Dream," Sapnap responds with a concerned voice. Dream carefully removes George's arm from his waist, trying his best not to wake him. He stirred a little bit, but didn't wake up.

Sapnap grabs Dream's arm and drags him to the door. When he opens it, Dream sees that the plains around him was now grey. The grass was dead and all of the trees in the distance no longer had leaves. The sky was overcast and then Sun was nowhere to be seen. The air around him felt so cold.

"Looks like everything is finally dying," Dream states as he looks at the depressing wasteland.

Sapnap looks out towards the horizon. "It's not just that. I found a village when I went scouting." His voice begins to break as he talks. "Clay, there's a dead village. The houses are destroyed and everyone is gone. If we don't kill this thing, the whole world is going to look like that."

"We won't let that happen. I promise, Nick." Sapnap cracks a smile as he thinks long and hard about Dream's statement.

Behind them, the door opens and George walks outside, joining Dream by his side. "Wow," is the only thing he's able to mutter as he looks upon the dead land.

Sapnap turns back towards the shack and opens the door. "We need to keep moving. The longer we wait, the worse everything is going to get." As the door closes behind him, Dream can hear him yelling for Bad and Skeppy to wake up.

George grabs Dream's hand, still looking out towards the devastated plain. "Dream? I'm scared."

Dream squeezes George's hand. "It'll be ok. We've all got each other's backs." He smirks at George. "We're badass. We've got this."

George smiles warmly. "You're right. We can do this."

"GUYS!" Sapnap yells from inside the shack. "GET YOUR STUFF SO WE CAN GO!" The two follow Sapnap's orders and make their way inside to pack up. They pack their beds and eat a quick breakfast, then head off once more.

As they walked closer to the abandoned village, Skeppy kept twirling his new trident in his hands, much to Bad's dismay. He was concerned that Skeppy would stab someone by accident. Dream, on the other hand, was quite impressed. He had a good amount of upper body strength for someone who had died over and over again. He also had a lot of control over the weapon, like his hands fit the staff perfectly. The color of the trident also matched his hoodie which added another layer of perfection to it.

Bad ducks just as Skeppy swings the trident over his head, just barely escaping injury. He huffs. "Skeppy! That's ENOUGH!"

Skeppy smiles at him mischievously. "Do you have a problem with me having a trident, Bad?"

"Um, YES!" Bad tries to snatch the weapon out of Skeppy's hands, but Skeppy holds the weapon away from him as he uses his free arm to hold Bad back. He giggles as Bad stops fighting. "You know what? Fine. Take an eye out. See if I care!"

Skeppy gives him puppy dog eyes. "You don't care about me?"

"Wait, no, Skeppy, I-I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry." Bad looks down at his feet. Skeppy grins once again as he boops Bad's nose and rubs ahead of the group. Bad runs after him, smiling.

"God he's so in love," George says, watching them run off.

Dream nods. "They're cute."

George grabs his hand. "We're the cutest, though."

Behind them, Sapnap begins gagging. "Y'all are nasty." He forces himself between the two. "Until we get back home, you two need to go back to having silent awkward moments, got it? I don't want to puke every time I see you two." George shrugs, then grabs Sapnap's hand. "What are you doing?"

"My hand was empty. If I'm not allowed to hold Dream's hand, I guess yours will suffice," George explains.

Sapnap yanks his hand free. "Fine. Be gross. Just don't touch me."

George smirks as he grabs Dream's hand. He had won.

Up ahead of them, Skeppy and Bad had stoped walking and were looking down at something. When the other joined them, they saw that down a hill was a village that was broken and abandoned. A layer of ash coated the ground and danced when the wind hit it just right. The area was quiet.

Bad was the first to enter the village. He took careful steps as if he was afraid to step on someone's foot. He looked at the broken down buildings, imagining the lives of the people that once inhabited the area. But what finally got to him was a small rag doll in the middle of the path. Bad bent down and carefully picked it up.

The rag doll looked like it was pretty a long time ago. Her yarn hair was crispy and her face was charred from being set aflame. Her yellow dress was badly ripped and was clinging to the doll for dear life. As Bad ran his finger over the doll's face, he found himself getting emotional. The reality of the dead village was hitting him. He dropped the doll to the ground as he held his face in his hands.

"We should look around," Sapnap says aloud. "Maybe we can find something useful here." Everyone silently agrees as they begin searching the rubble.

Dream decides to check out one house that still had a wall up. The rubble had nothing of interest in it. It was just shattered glass and broken pieces of wood. But just as he was about to step away from the home, he fell through the floor. Wooden planks had covered up a basement entrance of some sort. And, to Dream's surprise, the basement was untouched.

"Dream! Are you alright?" Skeppy calls down to him from above. "I saw you fall."

Dream sits up and rubs his head. He had landed on a bed of some sort. While it wasn't a pleasant fall, it would've hurt a lot more if he landed on the cobblestone floor. "Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks Skep. Just keep looking around." Skeppy leaves as Dream looks around.

The basement was filled with all sorts of things that Dream had never seen before. The walls were made out of some sort of red stone that felt warm to the touch, despite it being chilly in the room. Along the wall was brown sand with some red roots growing out of it and some sort of drink maker beside it. Beside that was a chest and an empty cauldron. In the middle of the room was a lectern and a book placed on top of it. Dream's curiosity got the better of him and he decided to read from it. He opened it up to a random page and began to read:

Day 21-

I have made an amazing discovery! Lighting the obsidian opened up a whole new world to me. I don't know what I should call the red world yet. The only inhabitants I've met so far are walking pig people who seem friendly. We haven't found a way to communicate yet unfortunately. Maybe one day, I'll be able to ask them about their land of lava.

~T.B.

Dream reads a few more journal entries, learning more and more about the author of the book. He was some sort of animal trainer that worked with pigs that found a way to enter a new dimension of some sort. The journal entries started out fine, but they started getting disturbing the more Dream read.

Day 43-

I did it. I managed to communicate with the pig people. Well, sort of. We oinked at each other a few times, but it made the pigman smile. I think he wants to make me his king. Just imagine....ruling over a world full of things that understand you. It'd give me a way to show everyone that my research meant something. It'd scare them, and I want that. I want the power.

~T.B.

Day 68-

I discovered something new. It's a black skeleton that made me feel pain when it touched me. I liked it. It's the perfect weapon to unleash onto those imbeciles that doubted me. They'll pay.

All of them will pay.

~T.B.

Day 70-

I noticed today that the ancient carvings in the sandstone depict a three-headed monster made from the heads of the black skeletons. If I could figure out how to make this monster, I could send it to the over-world. Everyone could finally see what I'm capable of. Vincent keeps telling me that this isn't the answer, but he doesn't understand me. No one does. But even though me makes me mad, I think I'll keep him. He'll make a great second in command in my new kingdom. I've enlisted the help of the pillagers to make my monster. If they can make totems of undying, then they must be able to help me make a new life. If all goes well, I'll let them live too. I'll have a whole army to play with.

~T.B.

And then, there was one final journal entry.

Day 84-

I've done it. I've created a monster. It is unstoppable. As soon as I send it to this world, it'll kill everything that dares try to hurt it. It lives in here with me and I'll send it out for a few days at a time. The only one it listens to is me. Because I am the king. No, the GOD of the Nether. Everyone better start praying for mercy, because once Vincent and I make our escape, they will all die.

~T.B.

Dream was shaken up at the journal entries. Not only did a man create the monster, but they did it on purpose with the help of the pillagers. Dream felt disgusted that someone could've done such a thing to their own home. But, he at least new where the Wither lived. He decided to take a look in the chest to see if this guy left anything behind, but when he opened it, he heard pistons move behind him. Everything around him was cast in a beautiful purple glow. He looked over his shoulder and saw it.

It was the portal the author made.

The chest had been trapped to hide the portal. It was like the author didn't want anyone to mess with it. Dream grabs the iron left in the chest, then slowly walks up to it as it hums, calling him to jump into it. He reaches his hand into it and his hand goes numb for a second. It then disappears inside of the portal to somewhere hot. He pulled his hand back to see that his palm was sweaty.

"Dream? You still down here?" Dream hears George call out.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm here. I think I know where to go to find the Wither," Dream responds.

He hears the sound of someone jumping down, followed by footsteps as George turns the corner to the portal room. He stares at it in awe. "What is it?"

"It's a portal to another dimension. Someone made the Wither to destroy the world. Only he can control it," Dream explains.

"I'll go get the others. If the Wither is in there, we should go after it," George says as he walks back to the opening. "Can you help me up?"

Dream walks over to George and hooks his hands together, giving George something to put his foot on. George jumps onto Dream's hands as Dream pushes upwards, launching George towards the opening. He then helps push him up and through the hole. As George calls out for the rest of his team, Dream can't help but feel nervous about going through the portal. It was bound to be dangerous and, after all they've been though, Dream wasn't ready to loose anyone in the group. They'd become his family. He couldn't loose them. One by one, they came down the opening, ready to go through the portal. They all stare into the portal, not wanting to be the first one to go.

Sapnap takes a breath, then reluctantly says, "Last one in is a rotten egg, I guess." He walks into the portal, letting the purple mist swallow him. Dream follows him in and tightly closes his eyes, not completely ready to see what's on the other side. His whole body goes numb, then returns back to normal as a new warmth settles on his skin. He opens his eyes and finds himself face to face with a zombie pigman. It snorts at him, then turns and walks away. Dream steps out of the portal and towards Sapnap who was looking out towards a large ocean of lava. Behind them, they hear George, Skeppy, and Bad enter.

George crosses his arms and legs out a slow whistle. "This place is something else, huh?"

"Let's split up," Skeppy suggests. "This place is huge. We can cover more ground if we split. I'll go with Bad and you three can stay together."

"No way," Dream says. "What if we find that thing?"

"Just scream really loud and I'll come running," Skeppy says as he starts to walk away.

"Skeppy, no!" Dream yells out. Skeppy ignores him and continues walking.

"I'll go bring him back," Bad says as he walks after him.

"Well, we may as well look around here while Bad gets his boyfriend," Sapnap says, looking around the area. "We can see what's going on here."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!" George shouts, point towards the sky as a giant white jellyfish- looking thing floats towards them.

Dream thinks back to the journal he read before, remembering an entry that the author did about those things. "That's a Ghast! They shoot fire charges!"

"INCOMING!" Sapnap yells as the Ghast opens its mouth, firing right at Dream. He holds up his shield which protects him, but blasts off his helmet. It goes flying straight into the lava pool.

"Damnit! I lost my helmet!" Dream yells as the Ghast fires again at him. He then decided to do the thing he read in the journal: hitting the fire charge back. He drops his shield and yells as he swings his sword at the fire charge, expecting to be sent flying through the air. Instead, the charge flies back towards the Ghast and kills it.

Dream shouts in celebration, "FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT! HA!" His shouting makes both George and Sapnap laugh.

"If you've got anything for it, you may want to make a new helmet," George says.

"I grabbed some iron from a chest in the portal room. I think I have just enough to make a new one. Anyone have a crafting table?" Sapnap pulls his crafting table out of his backpack and sets it down. Dream quickly gets to work making a new helmet, but groans once he finishes.

"You alright?" George asks.

"I'm such an idiot!" Dream says, holding something in his hands. "I made 16 iron bars! What am I going to do with 16 iron bars?" Sapnap and George both start laughing as Dream places the bars around him. "I'm just going to make a jail. I'm so stupid."

Sapnap then gets the wild idea to get on top of the crafting table and jump to the top of the weird cage Dream was making. He then jumps feet first into it. The two in the cage laugh loudly as they realize how pressed up they were to each other. It was impossible to move without hurting the other one.

Right in the middle of their laughter, they hear George scream. They look up to see him being chased by a fiery version of a slime. A magma cube. It bounced towards him, sparks flying around it.

"GET OUT OF THE CAGE AND HELP ME!" George yells. For some reason, his pleading only made their situation funnier.

"Get us out first!" Dream laughs.

George runs past the cube and begins trying to break the cage open. "Why do these things take so long to break?!"

"Just mine it!" Sapnap laughs.

"I'm TRYING!" George yells.

"George, look out!" Dream shouts, just in time for George to dodge a blast from another Ghast. He screeches as he runs away from it and towards the portal, his friends begging him to break the cage.

"George, hit the fire charge back with your sword!" Dream tries to help George. George pulls out his sword and prepares himself to hit the charge back, but panics when he hears a noise behind him. He turns around to find a Ghast just inches away from his face. He screams as he runs the other way. Part of Dream felt scared, but a bigger part of him thought it was the funniest thing in the world. He began wheezing uncontrollably.

In the middle of the chaos, George manages to take out one of the Ghasts by hitting its fire charge back at it. Seeing an opening, he runs to the cage and breaks part of it, giving Dream enough room to break the rest while George handled the monsters. By the time Dream and Sapnap made it out of the cage, George was sweaty, exhausted, and looked like he was ready to strangle them.

"Don't you EVER go in a cage AGAIN!" He shouts.

"I can't promise anything," Dream responds, making Sapnap giggle. "Alright. Let's find this Wither and get out of here!"

———

Word Count: 3045

Published: July 10th


	15. Into Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

As Dream, George, and Sapnap were busy building a makeshift shack out of cobblestone, Skeppy and Bad had stumbled upon a large structure of some sort, made from deep crimson bricks. Even though Bad begged Skeppy to return to the others, he refused. He was too entranced by the spinning things made of pure fire. He clutched his trident as he carefully made his way down to a walkway.

"This place is like a fortress!" Skeppy states, looking around. "It's amazing."

"Yes, ha ha, it's great. Can we leave now?" Bad tries pulling Skeppy's arm back towards the portal, but he doesn't budge. "Skeppy, please. What if we find the Wither?"

"Then we will yell really loud and the others will come running. Duh." Skeppy rolls his eyes. "Lighten up, Bad! I don't know why you're so high strung."

Bad crosses his arms. "I'm so high strung because my friends keep nearly dying around me and my little heart can't take it anymore!" Skeppy slowly starts to approach one of the spinning fire things. "Skeppy! No!" Bad cries. Skeppy ignores him, determined to get closer.

"I just want to get closer to it!" Skeppy calls behind him to Bad. "Maybe it's friendly?"

"Have you met yourself? Friendly or not, it'll want to kill you after being around you for more than five seconds." Bad readies his sword in his hand.

Skeppy grabs his chest and winces. "My heart, Bad! My little heart hurts now!"

"Skeppy, step away from the fireball," Bad warns. "It doesn't look happy."

"It'll be fine!" Skeppy says.

Bad facepalms. "That's some famous last words right there."

Just as Skeppy reaches out to touch the fire thing, it shoots a fire charge at him. Skeppy manages to jump out of the way, but his hoodie sleeve catches fire.

"SHIT! PUT ME OUT BAD! WATER! WATER!!!" Skeppy was wildly waving his arm, trying to stop the fire.

Bad digs through his bag and pulls out a bucket of water. He tosses it onto Skeppy, but the water evaporates before it reaches his hoodie. "WHAT THE MUFFIN?!"

Skeppy pats the fire out before it reaches his skin, but it leaves a charred circle on his sleeve. He looks back towards the fire thing and watches in horror as it rises into the air. He grabs Bad's hand and drags him down the a long walkway and into an enclosed part of the structure. The two pant as Skeppy looks around the corner back at the fire monster. It slowly floats back down to its original spot on the walkway.

Bad grabs Skeppy's arm so tight, Skeppy could nearly feel his nails through his hoodie's fabric. Skeppy was about to pull his arm away, but he follows Bad's scared gaze to a black skeleton down the hall. It was extremely tall and held a black sword that looked mesmerizing in the light of the fire. When the skeleton noticed the two, it began sprinting towards them. Bad, still clinging to Skeppy, took off down the opposite direction of the skeleton. Skeppy could barely keep up with Bad as he fled from the monster. They turned the corner and held their breath as the skeleton ran past them, not noticing that his targets had hidden off to the side.

Bad grabs handfuls of his hair. "I hate this place. I HATE this place. I HATE THIS PLACE!"

Skeppy pinned Bad against the wall and covered his mouth with his hand. "Dude, shut up! We don't need it coming back!" Bad breathes heavily as he nods. Skeppy slowly removes his hand from his mouth. "Let's just go back the way we came and get back to everyone else."

"Good plan, except I think you forgot the part about the black skeleton patrolling the hall, waiting for us!" Bad says. "We need to find another way out of here. And preferably one that doesn't involve us getting set on fire." Skeppy looks down the hall in front of them and begins leading the way, staying as quiet as possible.

As Dream finishes putting their furniture down in their makeshift home, Sapnap and George sit outside of it, making sure the coast is clear.

"Bad and Skep been gone a while," George says, looking out around the red world. "We should go look for them."

"I don't know, man," Sapnap says. "I'd feel a lot better if you stayed in the stone hut."

"Sapnap, I'm fine. Really," George responds.

Sapnap frowns. "You may be fine, but I'm not. We don't have another totem of undying. I don't want to loose you again."

George rubs his ear. "I'm sorry, I must've misheard you. It sounded like you cared about me for a second there."

Sapnap rolls his eyes and shoves George. "Get used to it. You gave your life for me, so now I owe you mine."

"Excuse me?" George asks.

"If something is about to kill you, it is my duty to give my life for you now."

George laughs. "Yeah, no. That's stupid."

Sapnap shrugs. "You saved me. There's no way I'll ever be able to repay you. So from now on, no matter how much I may hate it, I'm going to protect you."

George gives him a weird look. "Yeah ok. Sure. If you say so."

A large explosion from behind them startled them. They grab their weapons and prepare to fight whatever made the blast. Behind them, all they saw was Dream standing in a crater where the stone house once stood. His front side was covered in ash from head to toe. He was surrounded by fire and had a confused look on his face.

"Well," Dream calmly says, "I have learned something new. Do not touch the beds in the Nether."

George lowers his bow as he realizes what happened. "Wait, a bed did this?"

Dream coughs, releasing a small black cloud from his mouth. "Yes. We can not sleep here."

"What time is it right now anyway?" Sapnap asks. "If it's getting late, we should go through the portal when Skeppy and Bad get back."

George pulls out his small handheld clock to check the time, only to see it spinning wildly. "What the actual hell?" He then notices that the compass in his bag was doing the same thing. "Did I hit them on something? They're busted!"

Sapnap takes the clock from George and bangs it on the ground a few times, hoping to knock something back into place. He looks back at it and sees that it is still spinning as crazy as it was before. "How are we supposed to know what time it is in here?"

"Or figure out which direction to go if we get lost?" George says, holding up his compass.

Dream wipes the ash from his face as he tried to come up with an idea. "Oh! How about we place torches down and leave a trail of them wherever we go?"

"That may work, actually," Sapnap responds as he pulls out a stack of torches and hands them to Dream.

Dream picks a direction and begins walking, placing a torch every few feet. "See? This isn't so bad! Now we can't get lost!" Sapnap and George follow behind him as they keep their eyes open for Skeppy and Bad. As they approach a large lava pool far below them with a skinny gravel bridge across it, Sapnap begins to feel nervous. He didn't like being to close to something so dangerous. Sapnap and George both stop where the gravel started, looking down below them.

Dream steps onto the gravel and looks back. "Guys, come on! You'll be fine as long as you don't look down!" Dream walks a few more steps, then places a torch, sending all of the gravel falling under his feet. He jumps off of the gravel to grab the netherrack for dear life. George and Sapnap sprint towards him, but Dream wasn't able to get a good grip and slipped off the edge. As Dream fell, he felt glass shatter against his back. Then, he felt lava engulf him.

George screamed as he watched the lava swallow him. All Sapnap could do was stare. Dream finally ran out of luck. Well, that's what he though until he saw Dream swim up to the lava's surface. He was surrounded by some sort of orange glow and looked dry. He swam to the edge of the lava pool and pulled himself to land.

"We're coming Dream!" Dream hears George call from above him.

"Yeah!" Sapnap chimes in. "Just stay put!"

Dream sits down and tries to lean against a large rock, but he feels a glass shard poke into his back. He carefully removes his hoodie and begins trying to pull the small shards out of it.

"What are you doing here?!" Someone whispers behind him, startling him. "You need to leave!" The man had an accent. French maybe? Dream turned around and looked at the young man. He was skinny and lean and wore black leather armor. He had a bandana wrapped around his brown hair that fell over his eyes. He pushes up the bandana slightly to allow him to see better. "Please, leave while you still can."

"Who are you?" Dream asks.

"I'm the one that just saved your life. Now do me a favor and go!" He grabbed Dream's arm and was trying to pull him up.

"What did you do to me to make me survive the lava?" Dream asks, not moving from his spot.

The man drops Dream's arm and gives him a dirty look. "If I tell you how, will you leave?"

"Sure, yeah. Eventually," Dream responds.

The man groans, then points to his belt where bottles of orange liquid hung. "It's fire resistance. I threw one at you so that you wouldn't die."

"Why did you save me?" Dream questions.

The man hesitates for a moment. "I've let too many people die. If I can help at least one person, then I'm going to do it."

Dream stands up. "Well, thank you. What's your name?"

"Vincent, but my friends call me a6d" the man responds.

As Dream reaches to shake his hand, he realizes he recognized that name. "Wait, you were the guy from the journal!"

"Explain?" Vincent asks.

"By the portal, there was this journal written by someone named T.B. The author said your name in it," Dream explains. He then pulls his hand away. "You know the guy that made the Wither." He began backing away slowly as he drew his sword, nervous to be around Vincent.

Vincent panics when he sees Dream ready his weapon. He holds his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, calm down. Yes, I know who made it and I know how dangerous he is. That's not me, though. I'm not going to hurt you."

Dream's shoulders relax, but he doesn't put away his sword. "How do I know you won't hurt me?"

"I saved you, didn't I?" He asks.

Dream reluctantly nods. "Ok. Good point. Good point."

Vincent sighs. "Look, I want you to take your friends and get out of here. You do not want to stay here."

"If it's so bad here, why don't you leave?" Dream asks.

Vincent lowers his gaze. "It's complicated."

"Look, I'm not leaving until the Wither is dead," Dream says. "My team and I have come to far to give up because some kid told us to run."

Vincent begins to fill with hope. "You're going to kill the Wither?"

Dream nods. "Yes. It's killing everything and it's going to wipe out our village if we don't kill it."

"Ok. I've got a plan," Vincent says. "The Wither is currently at my home. I can get my friend to send it out to the over world so you and your team can kill it. But if I'm going to do this, you have to promise me something."

"What?" Dream asks.

"You need to promise to leave the nether alone forever. No coming back in here. No looking for me or the Wither's creator. Once the Wither is gone, there'll be peace. There won't be any need to come back and I don't want you to nearly die again."

Dream narrows his eyes. "How do I know that your friend won't make another Wither?"

Vincent closes his eyes tightly. "He's made some bad choices, but he's a good man. He just needs help finding the light again. I'm not giving up on him yet."

"Ok. Fine. If you can get the Wither to the normal world, we won't come back," Dream says. "I promise."

Vincent smiles. "Thank you. I really hope you can kill it. It's too dangerous to be kept alive." Vincent looks behind him. "I need to go. I don't want to keep my friend waiting. Good luck!" Vincent then takes off, weaving his way in between pigmen as he went.

"Dream?" George calls out. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here, guys!" Dream yells. George and Sapnap.

When George's eyes fell on Dream, he threw this arms around him and buried his head into his neck. "You scared me, Dream!"

Sapnap gags behind them. "Y'all are too gross."

"I thought you said you'd stop?" Dream asked, stifling a laugh.

"I said I'd let you hold hands," Sapnap corrects. "So, how did you make it out of this one?"

"This guy named a6d threw a fire resistance potion at me," Dream explains. "He's going to help us. He has a plan." George and Sapnap both sit as Dream explains everything that had just happened.

"Skeppy, do you see anything?" Bad asks as Skeppy peers around the corner.

"All clear," Skeppy whispers in response. Skeppy crouches as he leads Bad under netherbrick fences that acted as windows. Bad peeked between the fence posts and caught a glimpse of something black moving. It was the black skeleton that had been chasing them for the last ten minutes.

"IT FOUND US!" Bad screeches. He locks hands with Skeppy as they sprint down the hallway. They turn the corner and find themselves facing a spinning fire monster. Skeppy decided to throw his trident at it, but it floats into the air, dodging the attack. The trident instead lands in the arm of a zombie pigman. It squeals loudly, alerting all of the other pigmen around it and, together, they charge towards Skeppy. Skeppy runs towards them to grab his trident, then runs back towards Bad. They turn around just in time to see the black skeleton coming for them.

"WHY DOES EVERYTHING WANT TO KILL US?!" Skeppy screams. He breaks down the fence posts and pulls Bad through the hole with him. He fills it up with cobblestone before anything could get through. He then sits down to catch his breath. "I haven't exercised like that in over a year and I feel like I want to die now."

"We aren't safe yet! We need to get back to everyone else," Bad says pulling Skeppy to his feet. Together, they build a cobble stone path that takes them right to the edge of a cliff. Ahead of them, they could see the portal and their friends. But between them was an army of angry pigmen, waiting to kill Skeppy.

Sapnap was the first to take notice when all of the pigmen ran to the edge. He saw Bad and Skeppy standing on a path, just a few feet from the edge of the cliff. "Why are they coming for you?" Sapnap yells out to them.

"I hit one of them by accident!" Skeppy yells back. "Looks like hitting one made them all angry!"

"You're an idiot!" Sapnap yells.

"I have an idea!" Dream says to George. "What if we push the pigmen off of the cliff?"

George pulls out his shield. "I'm ready to go shoving!" Dream smirks as he picks up his own shield, following George's lead. He ran up to the pigs and used his shield to push them off. Because George never hit them, they weren't angry with him. Dream helped push the pigmen off while Sapnap began laughing, highly entertained by the spectacle. As soon as all of the pigmen fell, Sapnap helped finish the path so that Skeppy and Bad could join them.

As soon as they were safely away from the edge, Bad punched Skeppy. "You are a MUFFIN! No more wandering off by yourself! GOT IT?!"

Skeppy sadly nods. "Yes Dar. I promise."

Bad nods. "Ok. I'm done with this place. I'm going back."

"Ok. When we get out, we have to update you two on the plan," Dream says. "It's time to kill the Wither."

———

Word Count: 2783

Published: July 12th


	16. Enchanter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

When they returned to the overworld, it was daytime. Dream couldn't tell how long they were in the Nether for, but he guessed they were there overnight because he felt exhausted.

As if reading Dream's mind, Skeppy asks, "Can we take a nap? I ran way too much."

"Well, we could have if Dream hadn't blown up the beds," Sapnap says.

Bad narrows his eyes. "Dream, why would you blow up the beds?"

"It wasn't on purpose!" Dream states. "All I did was sit on it in the nether and it exploded."

"Let's just go hunting," George proposes. "We can get wool and dinner. Boom."

"Ok, how about this? Bad and George go hunting while the rest of us continue looking around this place?" Sapnap says.

"Deal!" Skeppy yells, running towards the opening to the basement. The five all help each other up and out of the hole. George and Bad both pick a direction and start walking while the other three scavenge around for anything useful.

After some time of looking around, Skeppy began loudly cheering. "YES! HELL YES! GUYS GET OVER HERE!" Skeppy had moved some rubble around and uncovered an enchantment table.

Sapnap and Dream both make their way over to Skeppy, careful not to hurt themselves in the broken wood and glass scattered on the ground. They find Skeppy reading through the enchantment table's book.

"Woah! An enchantment table!" Sapnap exclaims, running his hand over the obsidian base. "I don't think I've ever seen one of these in person."

"It's too bad we don't know how to use it. We could've gotten some great upgrades on our weapons and armor," Dream says.

"Speak for yourself!" Skeppy laughs as he touches the book. The top of the page was labeled "Trident" and below it looked to be a list of something written in a different language. He grabs his trident, then presses his forefinger to one of the words in the list. Suddenly, a bluish-purple glow emitted from the book and spun around Skeppy, slowly making its way to his trident. The glow engulfed his weapon and lingered on it for a few seconds before fading slightly. The trident was now giving off a dull glow.

"What did you just do?" Sapnap asks.

Skeppy smiles proudly. "I just enchanted my trident!"

Dream looks at him with wide, excited eyes. "What enchantment is on it?!"

Skeppy's smile falls a little bit. "I have no idea and I won't know until I use it against something."

Sapnap snorts our a laugh. "Dude, seriously?"

Skeppy points to the book. "You read this over and you tell me if you can understand it! It's an ancient language. Every line is a different group of enchantments. I'm just hoping my trident has loyalty now." He gets up and chucks the thing as far as he can and waits a moment. "Nope. Not loyalty. Damn it."

"What kinds of enchantments are there for tridents?" Dream asks.

Skeppy shrugs. "I have no idea. The only one I knew of is loyalty which means it flies back to you when you throw it." He looks at his trident far away from him. "I should probably go get that." He awkwardly walks over to his trident and yanks it out of the ground. On his way back, he calls out, "Maybe if I just stab some stuff I'll figure out what it does?"

Dream chuckles. "Dude you're so chaotic."

Zak carefully puts his trident down and flips the book to a page labeled "Swords." He yanks Dream's sword from his belt and touches his finger to an enchantment before Dream even has time to react. He then holds it out for Dream to take. "There you go! Magical sword of magical-ness."

When Dream takes the sword, he feels the power from the sword crawl up his arm. It gave him that feeling that someone would get if they got tickled so much that their body began to ache. His arm felt stronger, yet weaker at the same time. It was a sensation that he hated, but he couldn't put the sword down. It was taking over him. "Skeppy, why does it feel weird to hold?" He asks.

Skeppy shrugs. "It's normal. You get used to it. Sapnap? Your sword please?" Sapnap hands Skeppy his sword and Skeppy repeats the process. Once Sapnap had his sword back, Dream could tell by looking at his face that he felt the same way.

Sapnap's arm started shaking, so he put the sword down. "There's no way I'm going to be able to fight with that thing."

Skeppy picks it up off of the floor and hands it back to Sapnap. "I think we should go figure out what our weapons do now."

"How do you propose we do that?" Dream asks.

Skeppy giggles. "By being chaotic."

George shoots an arrow into a grey sheep, killing it after already shooting it once before. He pulls his sheers from his bag as Bad prepares his sword to cut off meat for dinner.

"How did I get stuck being the one to cut it open?" Bad asks, trying his best not to gag. He cuts the sheep open, filling the air with a nasty smell. "I don't blame Sapnap for not killing the sheep before. This is nasty."

"It's the circle of life," George says, expertly gathering the animal's wool. "Besides, you almost cut your hand off when I gave you the sheers earlier."

"I heard and sound and it startled me!" Bad whines. "I already told you that!"

George laughs. "It was a bunny, Bad. It wasn't going to hurt you."

"It could've been a creeper, George!" Bad yells. "We could've DIED!"

George shoves the bundle of wool into his bag. "How much meat do we have so far?"

Bad looks into his bag. "About 5 pounds. Do you still have those carrots we found?"

George nods. "They're in here. We're good. And we've got just enough wool to make five beds!"

Bad smirks. "You sure you want to make five beds and not four?"

George blushes. "Shut up."

"I won't tell if you 'accidentally' drop just enough wool for one bed," Bad teases.

"Come on, lets be adults. I'm not going to force him to sleep next to me. That's gross!" George slings his bag over his shoulder. "If he says he wants to, then I will, but I'm not going to force him to do anything."

Bad nods thoughtfully. "I like the way you think."

"So, how are you feeling about the fight?" George asks.

Bad shrugs. "I don't know. I'm all over the place right now."

"Same here," George responds. "I'm terrified, but kind of excited. I'm not scared of dying anymore."

Bad gives him a sideways look. "How could you not be scared of death?"

"Because I've gotten everything I could've wanted. I fell in love, I went in a grand adventure, and I have a new family that I'll love forever. I mean, sure, I miss my parents, but I've been distanced from them ever since I moved out three years ago. You guys are everything to me." George closes his eyes. "Thank you for doing this with me, Darryl. I can't imagine doing all of this without you."

Darryl pulls him into a bear hug. "Of course George. I love you so much."

George hugs him back. "I love you too, Dar." He pulls away and straightens our his shirt. "Alright, let's go make sure the three stooges haven't killed themselves yet." The two laugh as they head back towards the abandoned village.

Skeppy straightens his helmet as Sapnap looks at him, nervously. "Um, Skeppy? I don't think this is the best idea."

"Just aim for my chest plate. I'll be fine!" He takes a deep breath. "Alright, take a swing."

Sapnap closes his eyes as he swings his enchanted sword at Skeppy. Skeppy flies a few feet away as his body erupts into flames. He yelps as he runs into the small pond just a few steps away from him.

Dream begins wheezing. "This is so stupid!"

Skeppy pulls himself out of the water as he laughs. "Dude, this is awesome." He grabs his trident, then puffs out his chest. "Hit me again!"

Sapnap smiles as he swings at Skeppy, once again knocking him back and setting him on fire. Skeppy jumps into the pound and laughs. Sapnap starts laughing along with him.

Dream clutches his sides as he breathlessly wheezes. "Guys stop! You're going to kill each other!"

"My turn!" Skeppy yells from the pond. He aims his trident at Sapnap and throws his trident, but the trident doesn't leave his hand. He is instead propelled through the air and lands on his stomach right in front of Sapnap. "WHAT THE HELL?!" He stands up. "I just FLEW! I'm going to do it again!" He throws the trident, but it flies out of his hands normally. "Hmm. Maybe I can only fly when I'm on fire." Skeppy braces himself. "Hit me again, Sapnap."

Sapnap, who was taking too much enjoyment out of this, gladly hit Skeppy again. While on fire, Skeppy three his trident, but didn't fly. He jumped into the pond and began to pout.

"I don't get it!" Skeppy yells. "You guys saw me! I flew! I swear I did!!!"

"Maybe I should hit you again?" Sapnap suggests with a wicked smile. "It may work now."

It then hits Dream. He finally understands why it isn't working. He grabs Skeppy's trident and tosses it to him. "Throw it from the pond. See what happens."

Skeppy throws the trident and, sure enough, it launched him out of the water. This time, he managed to land on his feet. "FUCK YES I DID IT!" The three laugh as Skeppy turns to Dream. "Let's see what your sword does!"

Dream smacks Sapnap with his sword. Sapnap recoils in a lot of pain. "Holy SHIT why did that hurt so bad?!"

"Sharpness!" Skeppy yells. "You got sharpness! You do more damage now."

Dream twirls his sword in his hand. "Nice!" He looks up and notices George and Bad heading down the hill and into the village. He waves them over. "Guys! Look what Skeppy did!" After showing off their enchanted weapons, George and Bad were both eager to get their own weapons enchanted.

After performing the ritual two more times, Skeppy shakily handed their weapons back to them. "Man, enchanting things is draining. I don't think I'll be able to do anything else."

"At least we have our weapons. That's better than nothing," Dream points out. He smiles. "Thank you, Skeppy."

George admires his glowing bow slowly turning it and he inspects is. "So, how do we know what they do?"

Skeppy steps back and spreads his arms out. "Hit me."

George nervously laughs. "No, I'm ok. Who'd be stupid enough to test their weapons on their friends?" Sapnap, Dream, and Skeppy awkwardly look at each other. "Wait did you guys seriously do that?" George asks.

"Ok, that settles it!" Bad says. "These three are no longer allowed to be alone together." He grabs his sword and Dream watches his face as he adjusts to the power he must be feeling in his arm. He walks away from the enchantment table and points at a group of chickens. "George, shoot them down and we'll see what your bow does."

George aims his bow at one chicken and fires at it. It knocks the chicken back a few feet before dying. George reaches to load another arrow but feels something between his fingers. He looks back to the bow and sees that there's another arrow already waiting to be used in his bow. "Woah," he whispers as he inspects the new arrow.

"Infinity and punch!" Skeppy says. "Dude that's amazing!"

George smirks. "Infinite arrows and knockback, huh? I'm into it."

"Go smack a chicken, Bad!" Skeppy says, patting his back.

Bad walks up to one of the chickens and apologizes to it as he swings his sword down. Nothing about the hit changed. It acted like a normal sword. Bad turns back to the guys and shrugs. "Nothing happened!"

As Bad walks back, Skeppy thinks. "Maybe it's one of those enchantments that works on special monsters or something?"

"Well, I don't care what I got. It's pretty and shiny and that's all that matters to me!" Bad smirks widely. No one could tell if he actually didn't care or not, but either way, his smile was contagious. "Ok, let's spend our final night before the Wither just relaxing. I'll start a campfire!" Bad wonders to the middle of the village and begins crafting a campfire. Everyone slowly makes their way over to it, chatting along the way. Bad struck his flint and steel repeatedly until the coals caught fire. He then placed the pieces of mutton around it to start cooking it.

"What a ride this has been," Sapnap says and he settles on the ground. "I gotta admit it, I can't imagine doing all of this without you guys." He looks at George and Bad. "Thank you two idiots for following me. You've made this a hell of a lot more fun."

Bad boops Sapnap's nose. "Language."

Sapnap laughs as Skeppy clears his throat, ready to say something. "I also want to thank you guys for coming out here. I would've been at that outpost still had it not been for you guys."

Dream smiles. "I'm just glad you were all stupid enough to follow me this far. I would've died on day one without your help."

"Ok, can we talk about Dream for a second?" George laughs. "This guy has nearly died how many times? I swear you are the luckiest bastard I've ever met!"

"You know what? I give up," Bad says, throwing his hands in the air. "Say as many curses as you want. But by this time tomorrow, no more." Skeppy begins whispering profanities beside him, making Bad giggle.

"Well George, you're right. I am the luckiest," Dream says. "I'm the luckiest because I've got you in my life." George turns red as he looks away, a big smile stretched on his face.

The group eats as they crack jokes, sharing laughs and memories. Though they were about to risk their lives, Dream was happy. He found his purpose. This is what he was meant for. He was meant to be sitting with his three best friends and his lover. Life couldn't get any better. Once they all finished eating, they put together one last small shack where they'd spend the night. George laid out five beds, but Dream still opted to sleep with George. Bad gave George a playful side-eye as the two laid down together, making George laugh.

Just as everyone slipped off to bed, Dream felt a sound coming from outside. He was expecting to find Sapnap messing around outside, but then he saw that Sapnap was still in bed. Instead, he saw Vincent, throwing stones at the wooden wall of the shack.

As soon as he saw Dream, he dropped the small rocks in his hands. "Hey, I wanted to give you something for tomorrow." He hands Dream a bag filled to the brim with dark pink potions. "They are instant health potions. They'll harm the Wither and heal you at the same time. If you time breaking them right, they could be super helpful."

"Thank you so much, Vincent," Dream says, taking the bag from him.

Vincent shakes his head. "Please, call me A6D."

"I thought only your friends called you that?" Dream asks.

A6D smiles. "I know."

"You should come to meet everyone," Dream says as he points to the shack. "I'm sure they'd like to meet you."

A6D looks away. "I can't. I have to get back before my friend notices I'm gone." He begins to head back to the portal, only stopping to say, "It's coming tomorrow morning. Good luck!"

Dream walks back inside, carefully setting the bag by the wall. As he got into bed, he could feel his heart beating out of his chest. Tomorrow morning, everything would change.

———

Word Count: 2701

Only two more chapters left as well as a teaser for this book's sequel. Thank you all so much for all of the support! Love you guys!!! 💕💕💕

Published: July 13th


	17. The Beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream woke up early to the sound of rain hitting the roof of the shack. The only other person awake was Bad, who was already cooking breakfast. Dream carefully removed his arms from around George, then sat up.

Bad tilted his head towards the sack of potions. "Where did that come from?"

"My Nether friend visited last night and dropped it off." Dream yawns and stretches. "They are instant healing potions. If you throw them, they heal whoever they hit while damaging the Wither."

Bad's eyes widen. "Wow. That's helpful."

"I really hope it stops raining by the time we have to fight the thing," Dream says. "I'd hate to be slipping all over the place during the fight."

"I hope it continues to rain, personally," Skeppy says through his yawn. "I'd be able to fly everywhere if I was careful enough with my trident."

Dream nods thoughtfully. "Ok, good point. That would be helpful after all."

"Can you guys quiet down?!" Sapnap begs from under his covers. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"I'm making breakfast," Bad sings.

Sapnap shoots up in his head. "I'm up. Give me my numnums."

George whimpers in his sleep beside Dream. Dream leans over and plants a kiss on George's forehead, waking him up. He didn't seem like his usual, happy self. His eyes were a bit puffy and he looked ready to cry. He sits up in the bed and buries himself into Dream's arms. He sniffles through his nose struggling to breathe.

Dream cradles George in his arms, rubbing circles into his back. "George? Are you ok?"

George slowly nods. "Yeah, just had a nightmare."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dream asks.

"Not really. It was about us loosing to the Wither and, frankly, I don't want to think about that." He closes his eyes tightly. "We have to win today."

"And we are going to. Not only that, but we are all going to make it out alive." He lays his head on George's. "I promise."

George pulls Dream tighter against him for a moment, before letting go of him. He rubs his nose and smiles. "Thank you, Dream."

Dream nods as Bad begins passing around what was left of the mutton from the previous night. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to last them for a couple of hours. Throughout the trip, they had learned to wait many hours before being able to eat, skipping multiple meals over a span of a few days.

Once everyone was finished eating, they began to gear up. Dream slipped into his iron armor with ease, still salty that he made iron bars instead of a helmet. George offered to give Dream his own, but Dream refused, claiming that George needed it more than he did. As he attached the iron boots to his normal shoes, he decided that he had one goal in this fight, and that was to save everyone else. He'd much rather die than watch anyone else get hurt. As his mind swam with thoughts, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Sapnap. He didn't need to hear Dream to know what he was thinking and there was no way he'd let DReam sacrifice himself if it came down to it. They exchanged a silent conversation with their eyes before eventually laughing at each other.

"Ok, before we go out there," Bad starts, "I want to take a moment to say a few quick words." Everyone, already in their gear, stand up and form a circle. Bad holds Sapnap and Skeppy's hands, starting a chain reaction that caused everyone to hold hands. "I just wanted to say thank you. This has been fun. Really, it has. I just want you all to know that no matter what happens, you're my family and I love all of you muffins." Everyone smiles and then falls into a group hug. "Ok, let's head out."

Dream quickly figured out that stepping outside without a helmet was a mistake. The rain flattened his hair which made it hang in his eyes. He begins to laugh at the stupidity of the situation. "Alright, looks like I'm fighting this thing blind," he jokes.

George's eyes grow big as he gets an idea. He pulls Dream back into the shack and shoves his only iron ingot into the furnace to melt it down. As it melted, he used one of Bad's cooking tools to make eyeholes and a mouth hole in the shape of a smiley face. He also makes two holes on the sides to allow a spot for something to go through it. He carefully pulls it out and dunks it into a bucket of water that steams as it cools off. George pulls out the same kind of strong string he used to make his bow a year ago and ties it around the holes. Finally, he places the mask on Dream and pulls his hoodie up to cover the top of his head. "Now, your face is covered, protected, and will stay dry!"

Dream looks at his reflection in the water bucket and smiles. The face that George had made in the mask was kind of cute. It wasn't made perfectly, which made it even better in Dream's eyes. "It's perfect," Dream says. He lifts the mask just a little and kisses George's forehead. "Thank you." George beams as the two walk back outside. Dream was thankful that George made him his iron mask. It helped with the rain a lot more than he expected.

"Alright, now, we wait," Dream says settling down beside the shack. His rest was immediately interrupted by the sound of the portal, followed by a loud screech. "This is it."

The Wither rose from the basement carefully so that it didn't destroy anything around it. It was definitely trained to do that. It spun around until its six eyes fell on the group. They all readied their weapons just in time for the Wither to swoop in to take them out. They all jump out of the way, giving the Wither room to slam into their shack. The structure was now broken down into a pile of rubble, just like the rest of the village. The Wither's eyes wondered across all of the guys before deciding it was going to target Dream. Dream prepared to block the Wither's attacks with his shield. The Wither flew towards him, but he jumped out of the way just in time to get a few hits out on it. The Wither turned back towards him but quickly turned away when George fired an arrow at it. Instead of going after George, it dropped a black bomb of some sort. Everyone's heart dropped when they saw five wither skeletons emerge from where the bomb landed. They all began sprinting at George.

Sapnap decided to break away from Dream to help George. Although the rain was putting out any fire his blade produced, the knockback was enough. With his ability to push them back and George's bow, they made the perfect team. They both had finally found the balance that they had been searching for the whole time. George's infinite arrows also proved to be extremely useful. Instead of having to load a new arrow every time, George was able to just pull the string back as a new arrow appeared at his fingertips. The two were a dangerous team, which couldn't make Dream any happier.

Figuring that the two could handle the skeletons on their own, Dream turned his attention back to the Wither. He watched as Skeppy launched himself into the sky, stabbing the Wither on his way back down to the ground. The Wither turned around and began throwing Wither skulls at Skeppy that exploded when they made contact with something. Skeppy's extreme agility made dodging the explosions quite easy. Unfortunately, the Wither was too high for anyone to hit. Bad, deciding to be the bait, begins to yell as he bangs his sword on his shield. The Wither whips around and screams as it races towards Bad. Just before it was able to get close enough to hurt him, Dream came flying in from its side, digging his sword into its ribs and pulling upwards, effectively breaking two of its ribs. It fired a skeleton head at him, but Dream blocks the blast with his shield. Skeppy runs up behind the creature and stabs the other side of its ribcage. Because of the three prongs of his trident, he was able to break all three of the ribs on that side. The monster rose into the air and screeched, sending two more black bombs to the ground. The bombs released eight wither skeletons.

"KEEP THE SKELETONS OFF OF ME! I'LL TAKE CARE OF THE WITHER!" Dream yells loud enough for everyone to hear. Everyone yells back in understanding.

After watching Sapnap and George kick butt together, Skeppy decided that he wanted to show off. He didn't like getting upstaged. He spun his trident over his head as two skeletons approached him from different sides. He spins his weapons and impales one of the skeletons. He lifts it up and over his head and straight onto the second skeleton. Skeppy then flies into the air, then comes hurtling down onto the skeletons, his trident going through both of their bodies. The bottom one, still alive, swings his sword at Skeppy. Skeppy yanks his trident free just in time to block the incoming attack and uses the prongs fo the trident to force the sword out of the skeleton's hand. Once it was unarmed, Skeppy plunged his trident into the skeleton's hollow skull and popped its head off of its body.

Bad, who watched the whole thing, cheered for Skeppy as he wiped the sweat from his face. Skeppy looks up to smile at Bad, but panics when he sees a wither skeleton right behind him. "BAD! TURN AROUND!" he screams.

Bad turns around and blocks the incoming attack from the skeleton. He hits its neck with his sword, making it crumble into a pile of bones.

"Hell yeah!" Skeppy shouts as he runs up to him. "Smite! I'd normally call it useless, but right now, I love it."

Across the battlefield, Sapnap and George are trying to make quick work of the skeletons after them. They continued with their original strategy of Sapnap hitting them back while George shot arrows into them. It was going well until George heard Dream call his name. He turned and saw a blue wither head coming straight for them. George dives for Sapnap and they both roll out of the way of the blast, but some of the debris hits George's left wrist. He screams out in immense pain, catching the attention of the Wither. It begins to float towards them. Dream tries to throw rocks at it, but nothing was pulling its attention away.

Noticing the Wither coming for him, George scrambles to get his bow. He painfully pulls back an arrow and shoots it. To his surprise, the arrow actually landed. As long as he hit one of the Wither's heads, he'd do damage. It hit the Wither, making it fly backward. He looks down at his wrist and watches as it quickly begins to swell and bruise. He tries to pull back his bow, but yelps in pain before he can even get the string halfway back. His wrist hurt too much.

Sapnap grabs George's bow as he looks at his friend's wrist. "Are you ok?" he asks, despite already knowing the answer.

George groans in pain as he tries to move his hand. "I think it's broken!"

"SHIT!" Sapnap yells. He looks back to the Wither and sees it send down another black bomb of skeletons. He hands George his sword. "I know you're left-handed, but you can't be out here without a weapon."

"What about you?" George asks, awkwardly holding the sword in his hand as he adjusts to its power.

Sapnap pulls the bowstring back as an arrow appears. "I've got unlimited ammo. One of these arrows is bound to hit!"

George nods as he holds his left arm close to his chest. His whole arm ached, but he couldn't focus on that right now. He had skeletons to push away.

After flying away from George's arrow, Dream was able to get the Wither to focus on him once again. He could tell that George was hurt which only gave him more reason to get the Wither locked on him again. The Wither hissed as it began throwing skeleton heads at Dream. Dream manages to escape all of them and decides to pull out his secret weapon. He reaches into his bag and pulls out one of the instant healing potions. He throws it as hard as he can at the Wither, watching as it shatters against the right head. The dark pink liquid seeps into its skin as it roars in the air. It encases itself into the blue transparent shell it had during Dream's first encounter with it and flies down to the ground. It hovers just above the grass and begins to breathe heavily. Dream starts to rush at it, but the blue casing around the Wither explodes, sending him flying back. Dirt, gravel, and pieces of stone are thrown everywhere. Dream struggles to get up but eventually pushes himself up onto his hands. He was expecting to see the Wither right in front of him but instead saw Skeppy fighting it.

In a very short amount of time, Skeppy seemed to have mastered flight. He was easily flying around the monster, taunting it as he stabbed it time after time. Once Dream was back on his feet, he saw that Skeppy had managed to remove the Wither's left head. But while he was busy cheering, the Wither hit him out of the sky with a blue Wither skull, making his skin go grey as he hit the ground. Bad rushed to his side and knelt on the ground.

Before he could say anything, Skeppy coughs. "I'm fine. I'm alright." He sits up as the grey leaves his skin. "It's temporary." Bad helps him back to his feet just in time to face off with another skeleton.

Dream threw another potion at the monster, inflicting some more damage, before rushing in with his sword. He jumps into the air and launches his sword into the middle head, making it scream. He pulls his sword back and uses it to crack off the Wither's final rib. It was unsettling to see the monster with just two heads and a spine, but it wasn't exactly pleasant to look at before, so Dream shook it off. He lifted his sword to swing again, but the monster launches chunks of the ground in all directions. The force from the blow set DReam flying back once again. A stone landed on his mask, cracking the bottom corner of it. While the mask helped protect him, the rock still hit him just right that his nose started to bleed. He had also bit his lip when he fell to the ground, causing him to taste that nasty metallic flavor in his mouth. He spits out some of the blood as he looks up to see where the rest of his team was. His heart sank when he saw Sapnap.

A large stone had hit Sapnap in the head, making him fall to the ground unconscious. George was by his side, trying to get him to wake up as Wither skeletons approached them.

"SKEPPY!" George yells as he wraps his good arm around Sapnap. "HELP ME!" Skeppy uses his trident to fly through the air to help George move Sapnap, leaving Bad alone to deal with the skeletons around him. Bad looks like he is starting to feel overwhelmed as the skeletons swing at him from all directions. He was good with a sword, but his nerves were getting the best of him in this situation. He holds up his shield as he tries to recollect himself.

As much as Dream wanted to help Bad, he couldn't. At this moment, he had to focus on killing the Wither while hoping that Bad would be able to get himself out of this one. Dream charges at the Wither and swiftly cuts off it's left head. The Wither became even angrier than it was before. It lifted the ground around it and launched it at Dream. This time, Dream was ready. He lifted his shield to block the incoming debris. But the rainwater beneath his feet made the ground too slick for him to continue holding his ground on. With another blast, the Wither knocks him off of his feet and onto his back. The monster then displaces the ground right underneath Dream, throwing him into the air. He came crashing back down to the ground and landed on his back. Everything in him ached. He tried to push himself up, but couldn't find the strength to do it. He grabs onto his last potion and, without thinking about using it on himself, throws it at the beast. It charges him with fire in its eyes. Dream breathes heavily as he watches the Wither advance on him. He felt like he couldn't move anymore. Even if he could, his sword had fallen too far away for him to grab. He weakly held up his shield, but the Wither threw gravel at it, removing it from his hands. He closes his eyes as he listens to the Wither coming closer. He could hear the distant memories of his friends talking to him, laughing, and loving him. It made Dream smile. He looked back at the Wither. It was weak. His friends were strong. He knew that they'd be able to finish it off once he was gone. He closes his eyes once again, preparing himself for the sweet release of death.

But before the Wither could finish him off, it screeches. Dream opens his eyes to see a glowing blade sticking out of the Wither's head. The blade is swiftly removed as the Wither rises into the air, revealing Bad behind it, glaring at the monster. The Wither lets out one final howl as it shakes violently. Its body gets wrapped up in a blinding white light until it finally bursts. All was quiet as the Sun came out from behind the overcast sky. The grass around them became green as the trees rapidly grew their leaves back. Life had been returned to their world.

Bad holds out his hand to Dream to help him up. Dream takes it and staggers to his feet, barely able to keep his balance. Off to the side, he could see his three other friends. They were tired, badly beaten, but alive. Sapnap had woken up but had a sizable lump on his forehead. Skeppy and George were both still supporting him as they helped him to his feet. Bad helped Dream walk towards them as he felt his throat dry up. Dream desperately wanted to cry but was too exhausted to do so. He was just thankful that they did it. They won. When they were close enough, Bad and Dream pulled everyone into a group hug. There was a mixture of laughing and crying as they held each other, just thankful to be alive.

———

Word Count: 3241

I've never written a battle like this before, so it may not be the best and that's ok. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it!!! 💕

Published: July 13th


	18. Sweet Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Dream wakes up to the sound of clanking metal outside his window. He stretches and smiles as he realizes he's in his own bed again. After a few days of traveling, Dream and his friends finally made it home last night. He slept like a baby now that he was in his own bed again. He could smell his mother's fresh bread from the other room which pulled him out of bed. He slipped into his clothes for the day, completing his look with his signature green hoodie.

Sapnap was already in the kitchen, talking to Dream's mom. His bump on his forehead was a lot smaller. In fact, it was barely noticeable. His black eye was also almost completely healed with only a thin black line still under his eye. When he saw Dream walked in, he smiled warmly. "Good morning."

Dream stretches as he says, "Good morning, Nick."

"Are you ready for today?" Sapnap asks.

Dream grabs a plate and cuts himself a slice of bread. "Yeah. For the first time ever, I know what I want to do." Today was his big day. It was the choosing ceremony. And after meeting Rose and her friends in the desert village, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He quickly ate his food, then followed Sapnap outside.

It felt so nice for the boys to be home. They had missed the other townsfolk as well as the simple lives they once had. Dream saw everything so differently now. He appreciated all of the little things. Every blade of grass. Every songbird. Everything. He took a deep breath of the clean air as he let his body relax.

"I think there's someone waiting for you in the woods." Sapnap points towards the meadow. Dream squinted his eyes and saw George leaning on a tree, admiring an apple in his right hand. "Don't keep him waiting!" Sapnap says, shoving Dream towards the meadow. Dream shoves his hands into his hoodie pockets as he walks through the flowers towards the trees.

When George noticed him, he began smiling uncontrollably. "Hey there, stranger."

"Hey," Dream whispers, admiring the way George looked. When they had arrived the night before, Sapnap's dad had said how cool George's arm scar looked. George took the compliment and became a lot more confident in the way it looked. Now, he was wearing a short-sleeved blue shirt. The sun was in just the right spot to reflect a beautiful golden color onto every strand of George's dark hair. His eyes were intense, yet so gorgeous. George just had a happy glow surrounding him.

George tilts his head. "Are you ok?"

Dream smiles. "I'm perfect." He then looks down at George's left wrist that had a cast around it. "Is it broken?" He asks.

George looks down at his hand. "Yeah, and I hurt it worse when I shot my bow after the bones shattered. Thankfully, the medics were able to fix me up. In a few months, I'll be back to bowing." He continues admiring the apple in his hand. "Once I'm healed up, you gotta let me shoot an apple off of your head."

"Seriously?" Dream says, giggling to himself.

George smirks. "What, you don't think I can do it?"

"No, no. I trust you," Dream says. "It's just freaky to be shot at." They stand together in comfortable silence for a few moments before Dream asks, "How is Cat liking his new home?"

"He loves it at our place!" George says. "He snuggled up with me last night. He wasn't you, but it was still nice to have something in my arms, I guess."

"Nothing beats my snuggles!" Dream teases, making George giggle. "Hey, did you ever give Skeppy your book on Bad?"

"I did! He's already read the first few entires. In fact, he asked if we could become pen-pals. He really liked my writing." George kneels down and places the apple into his bag. "Hey Clay?"

"Yeah?" Dream answers.

"Thank you." George grabs Dream's hands. "Thank you for everything. This whole adventure really opened my eyes. I feel different now. I feel stronger than before. When you promised me that I'd make it back alive, I didn't believe you. But here I am with you by my side." George lays his head against Dream's chest. "I want it to always be like this."

Dream holds George's head against him and whispers, "It will be."

"DREAM!" Sapnap yells from beyond the meadow. "WE GOT TO GO, MAN! IT'S ALMOST TIME!"

Dream let's go of George and takes a step back. "I guess I better go."

George nods. "Yeah. I'll see you at the ceremony." George starts to walk away, but Dream grabs his arm, stopping him. He pulls George back and gently plants a kiss on his lips. George melted, feeling at home in Dream's arms. They both felt different at that moment. It was the first time they could relax while holding each other. Had it not been for Sapnap, they could've stayed there for hours. Remembering his friend was waiting for him, Dream breaks away from George. They say a quiet goodbye before finally splitting off in opposite directions.

As he caught up to Sapnap, he heard him mumble, "Y'all are adorable."

Dream smirks. "I thought you thought we were gross?"

"Don't tell him I said this, but he's kind of cool," Sapnap admits. "He was on fire when he was shooting those wither skeletons! And he still managed to get in one last shot AFTER he broke his wrist! That's badass! I wouldn't have been able to do that." Sapnap smiles. "Maybe, he's not as bad as I thought he was."

"Well, I'm glad you like him because I have a feeling he's going to be around for a while," Dream says.

"Oh hey! Did you hear that my dad is going to unite the two villages?" Sapnap asks excitedly. "While we were gone, they already started mapping out an easier path between here and there. How cool would it be to just have one giant village going up the side of this massive hill?!"

"That'd be great!" Dream says. "We'd all be able to hang out a lot more!"

Sapnap nods. "I never thought in a million years that I'd be so excited to spend time with a friend group. But I am genuinely happy that we have each other."

"And don't forget, you've got Rose," Dream teases.

Sapnap blushes. "Yeah. Yeah, I do." He laughs. "I still can't believe you were going to do all of that on your own."

"Yeah, looking back, I'm glad my best friend, a muffin, and a pretty cute guy followed me out there." Dream looks over and notices that the villagers were setting up chairs in front of a small stage. "I should probably get changed into something nicer."

"Yeah, me too," Sapnap agrees. Dream looks at his outfit and realizes that it's the same clothes he had been wearing the whole time they were gone. He must've collapsed into his bed last night.

Sapnap breaks away from Dream to head off to his own place to change. Dream followed his lead and walked back to his house. He dug through his closet, attempting to put together a nice outfit. He had shirts spread out all over the place and multiple pairs of pants on the floor as he began to feel overwhelmed. He didn't know why he wanted desperately to look good for the ceremony. Just a few weeks ago, he couldn't care less about picking his job, so why was he panicking? He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Dream's sister, Lisa, walks by his room, but quickly walks back to his doorway after catching a glimpse of the room. "Dude, what did you do in here?"

Dream flings himself onto his bed, bouncing a little as his bed supports his weight. "I don't know what to wear."

Lisa giggles. "Since when do you care what you look like?"

Dream sits up and rubs his face. "I don't knoooow," he whines.

Lisa gasps. "Does it have to do with that guy you were with last night?!"

"Which guy?" Dream mumbles. "There were four guys with me last night when we got back."

"Um, I don't know, maybe the cutie with the dark hair that you KISSED?!" She smirks at him, her eyebrows high as she waited for an answer.

Dream scoffs. "You're so annoying."

"Do you want my help looking good or not?" She asks impatiently.

Dream sighs. "Please?"

Lisa picks up a white button-down shirt and shoves it into his arms, along with a light green shirt and his nicest pair of jeans he owned. "Put the white shirt over the green one and keep it unbuttoned. Oh, also, roll up the sleeves. I think that guy will like it." She winks as she walks out of the room, leaving Dream to get dressed. He does exactly what she says and looks at himself in the mirror. Dream was so thankful that Lisa helped him. He felt great about the way he looked. He completed his outfit with a pair of white canvas shoes and ran some hair wax through the mess of hair on his head. It was messy, but after messing with it for a little bit, it looked like a good messy.

Out of his window, Dream could see people beginning to take their seats in the crowd. In the very front row was Sapnap who was laying on four chairs. An older woman was yelling at him to move, but he wasn't budging the slightest bit. Dream laughs as he walks outside and towards them.

The older woman was pouting. "Young man, you can't just take up all of the seats."

Sapnap shifted his position to better face the woman. "Look, lady. These seats are reserved for the guys who killed the Wither, ok? We went to hell and back to save your behind. Let us have these seats."

The woman's pout becomes a glare as she stares him down. "Fine. But if I hear you use that excuse to get anything else, we are going to have some issues." She then walks to the other side of the seating area to find a free chair. Sapnap snickers knowing he won the battle.

Dream laughs beside him. "Was that necessary, Nick?"

Sapnap sits up but keeps his legs covering two of the seats while he draped an arm over the third seat on the other side of him. "Yes. Yes, it was. Today is a big day and I promised Bad that I'd get the best seats!"

Dream then spots Bad and Skeppy not too far away from the cluster of chairs, as if Sapnap made him appear by saying his name. They were looking around, probably trying to find Sapnap. Dream, being the giant he is, was able to wave his arms above his head to get their attention. Skeppy notices him first and smiles as he drags Bad along behind him.

Sapnap moves his legs as both of the boys sit down. "How are you feeling?" Bad asks.

Dream sits down in the last seat Sapnap was saving. "Amazing. I know what I'm doing. Skeppy, did your village give you a job assignment yet?"

Skeppy shakes his head. "They told me that I can wait another year since I was gone. Until then, I'm staying with my parents for a while. I really hope our villages fully unite because I love that you get to pick your job here. Maybe that'll be the rule when it's my turn."

"If you could choose, what would you do?" Sapnap asks.

"I'd become an enchanter!" Skeppy's eyes lit up as he began telling them about his plan for the future. "Since I have a year before I have to start working, I want to tale that time to build an enchantment table for our villages and learn the language written in the book. By the time I actually need to start working, I'll already be a professional!"

As Dream listens to the guys' chat, he feels two arms slowly wrap around his neck. He looks over his shoulder to find George smiling at him. "I think you're in my seat."

Dream nervously laughs as he stands up. "Yeah, I should probably go figure out where I need to be for this thing."

George reaches out and squeezes Dream's hand. "Good luck."

It took a little bit of looking around, but Dream eventually found where the other people his age were all gathering. Sapnap's dad, Thomas, was organizing everyone by their first name so that the ceremony would flow better. Dream takes his place between a girl named Bailey and a boy named Devin. Thomas walks by Dream and stops. "You're in the wrong spot, my boy."

"But my name is Clay?" Dream says awkwardly.

Thomas pulls Dream away by his shoulders and pushes him behind Devin and in front of someone that Dream had forgotten the name of. "Last I checked, your name was Dream." Thomas winks as he walks away.

Thomas starts the ceremony off by thanking everyone for coming to the ceremony. He said a quick history about the founders of the village which Dream tuned out. He had that speech practically memorized because his parents always made him go to the ceremonies. Thomas then gestures for all of the 20-year-olds to join him onstage where 13 chairs were set up for the 13 people, ready to pick their job. Dream didn't feel too nervous, but his leg was bouncing furiously. It was something he'd never done much before, but when his eyes drifted over to George, he saw that his leg was bobbing as well. Dream smiled to himself, realizing he got it from him.

Having a name that started with "D" meant Dream didn't have to wait long before it was his turn. In his village, it was customary for the person choosing their job to give a speech. Of course, Dream didn't give any thought to writing one. He'd improvise as he always does. Once it was his turn, he walked to the lectern on the stage as he waited for the crowd to quiet down. He clears his throat, then begins speaking. "Three weeks ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't really good at anything. I mean, I kind of knew how to swing a sword. Maybe I could climb trees? Let's just say I didn't really know what to do. I grew up around people that knew what they were doing and where their life was going. I thought that I wanted that. I thought I wanted to try and plan every detail about my future. But, with the help of some friends, I realized that I don't need to have all of the answers. I also learned that I don't need to pick a job that makes me miserable." He looks at Thomas. "If you'd let me, I'd like to become a warrior for the village. I want to protect everyone from any threats that may arise."

Thomas thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "I don't see why not!"

Everyone begins to cheer as Dream takes his seat. In the front row, his friends were hooting and hollering, not caring about the people giving them weird looks. As the next person went up to give their speech, they quieted down, but excitement radiated off of them. Dream was excited too. Today marked the first day of the rest of his life. And if he had those guys behind them, how bad could it be?  
  


———

Word Count: 2624

That's the story! I hope you guys enjoyed it. The final chapter of this story is a quick thank you as well as a teaser for the next book, "The Burning", which is already starting! Go give the first two chapters some love! 💕

Published: July 16th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this story, you should go check out “Let The World Burn” by TheAnonFanOn! It’s a zombie apocalypse au that I recently started reading and I LOVE it! Be sure to drop kudos for their story! 💕💕💕
> 
> URL- https://archiveofourown.org/works/25198933/chapters/61072903


	19. Thank You + Teaser

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been peer pressured into making a discord for my stories! If you've enjoyed reading them and would like to join a community of other readers, click the link below. Thank you to @StrawberryClouds17 for telling me to make it. Ily honeyyyy! 💕
> 
> https://discord.gg/A4D4ZHQ

Oh. My. Goodness.

I've officially finished my first story! This book started out as a wya for me to write a story I thought sounded cool in my head. Never did I ever think that people would actually want to read it. So thank you to every single one of you who took time out of your lives to give this story a read. And an extra special thanks to those of you who left kudos and comments. I love getting comments and I've tried to respond to every single one of them. They were something I looked forward to every time I published a new chapter. You guys have been a great audience and I really hope you enjoy part two of this book, "The Burning", which already has a quick prologue as well as a chapter already published. Speaking of which, here's a teaser for the next part of the story...

Day ???

I made a monster. I made a monster and he killed it. He killed it and now I feel empty inside. The most powerful being in the world was slain by a mortal and his friends. But maybe I was wrong about my Wither. Unleashing it onto the world has taught me a few things.

1) The Wither was not all powerful

2) The death of my Wither revealed the real most powerful being to me

And 3) I need him

Vincent keeps telling me to let it go. To "keep the peace". But he doesn't get it. No one does. I need to find the man that killed my Wither and I need to bring him here. I need to show him how amazing life is when you live like a god. If I can show him, maybe he will help me show the world what I'm truly capable of. Together, we will rule the realm.

I'm coming for you Dream.

~T.B.

Finished- July 16th


End file.
